A multitude of non-histone proteins within tumor cells can undergo lactylation modification, thereby participating in multiple biological processes of cells, such as DNA damage response (DDR), transcriptional activity, pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), etc. Chen et al. identified that the key protein MRE11 in the MRN complex can undergo lactylation, mediated by acetyltransferase CBP. The gene discussed is MRE11; the disease is neoplasm.