Energy and Technology Review: Unlocking the mysteries of DNA repair.

摘要

DNA, the genetic blueprint, has the remarkable property of encoding its own repair following diverse types of structural damage induced by external agents or normal metabolism. We are studying the interplay of DNA damaging agents, repair genes, and their protein products to decipher the complex biochemical pathways that mediate such repair. Our research focuses on repair processes that correct DNA damage produced by chemical mutagens and radiation, both ionizing and ultraviolet. The most important type of DNA repair in human cells is called excision repair. This multistep process removes damaged or inappropriate pieces of DNA -- often as a string of 29 nucleotides containing the damage -- and replaces them with intact ones. We have isolated, cloned, and mapped several human repair genes associated with the nucleotide excision repair pathway and involved in the repair of DNA damage after exposure to ultraviolet light or mutagens in cooked food. We have shown that a defect in one of these repair genes, ERCC2, is responsible for the repair deficiency in one of the groups of patients with the recessive genetic disorder xeroderma pigmentosum (XP group D). We are exploring ways to purify sufficient quantities (milligrams) of the protein products of these and other repair genes so that we can understand their functions. Our long-term goals are to link defective repair proteins to human DNA repair disorders that predispose to cancer, and to produce DNA-repair-deficient mice that can serve as models for the human disorders.