Genetic and molecular analysis of dna damage repair and tolerance pathways

摘要

Radiation can damage cellular components, including DNA. Organisms have developeda panoply of means of dealing with DNA damage. Some repair paths have rather narrow substrate specificity (e.g. photolyases), which act on specific pyrimidine photoproducts in a specific type (e.g., DNA) and conformation (double-stranded B conformation) of nucleic acid. Others, for example, nucleotide excision repair, deal with larger classes of damages, in this case bulky adducts in DNA. A detailed discussion of DNA repair mechanisms is beyond the scope of this article, but one can be found in the excellent book of Friedberg et al. for further detail.