The maintenance of the stability of genetic material is an essential feature of 
every living organism. Organisms across all kingdoms have evolved diverse and 
highly efficient repair mechanisms to protect the genome from deleterious 
consequences of various genotoxic factors that might tend to destabilize the 
integrity of the genome in each generation. One such group of proteins that is 
actively involved in genome surveillance is the RecQ helicase family. These 
proteins are highly conserved DNA helicases, which have diverse roles in 
multiple DNA metabolic processes such as DNA replication, recombination and DNA 
repair. In humans, five RecQ helicases have been identified and three of them 
namely, WRN, BLM and RecQL4 have been linked to genetic diseases characterized 
by genome instability, premature aging and cancer predisposition. This helicase 
family plays important roles in various DNA repair pathways including protecting 
the genome from illegitimate recombination during chromosome segregation in 
mitosis and assuring genome stability. This review mainly focuses on various 
roles of human RecQ helicases in the process of recombination-based DNA repair 
to maintain genome stability and physiological consequences of their defects in 
the development of cancer and premature aging.