Genome maintenance is essential for the faithful propagation of life. Genome integrity can be challenged by endogenous stresses such as those induced by DNA replication, or by exogenous DNA damaging agents. In all cases, cells mount robust responses to detect and fix DNA damage. DNA repair itself is a double-edged sword, with some pathways also inducing mutations during repair. Cells thus have regulatory mechanisms to dictate repair pathway choice as well as regulate specific steps of the DNA repair process. Together, these genome maintenance systems facilitate cell survival as well as cellular adaptation and evolution under stress. My lab is interested in understanding how microbes organise, protect and repair their DNA. For this, we track replication and repair pathways inside cells in real-time using high-resolution and quantitative microscopy-based approaches. In my talk, I will discuss some recent insights we have gained on the mechanism of homology search during recombination.