Structural and Functional Studies on Nucleotide Excision Repair From Recognition to Incision.

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/860658· OSTI ID:860658

Kisker, Caroline ^[1]

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1. SUNY Stony Brook/Dept. of Pharmacological Sciences

Maintenance of the correct genetic information is crucial for all living organisms because mutations are the primary cause of hereditary diseases, as well as cancer and may also be involved in aging. The importance of genomic integrity is underscored by the fact that 80 to 90% of all human cancers are ultimately due to DNA damage. Among the different repair mechanisms that have evolved to protect the genome, nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a universal pathway found in all organisms. NER removes a wide variety of bulky DNA adducts including the carcinogenic cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers induced by UV radiation, benzo(a)pyrene-guanine adducts caused by smoking and the guanine-cisplatin adducts induced by chemotherapy. The importance of this repair mechanism is reflected by three severe inherited diseases in humans, which are due to defects in NER: xeroderma pigmentosum, Cockayne's syndrome and trichothiodystrophy.

• Research Organization: Research Foundation SUNY Stony Brook
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-01ER63073
• OSTI ID: 860658
• Report Number(s): DEFG0201ER63073
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
ADDUCTS
AGING
CHEMOTHERAPY
CONGENITAL DISEASES
DEFECTS
DISEASES
DNA ADDUCTS
DNA DAMAGES
EXCISION REPAIR
FUNCTIONALS
GENETICS
HEREDITARY DISEASES
MAINTENANCE
MUTATIONS
NEOPLASMS
NUCLEOTIDES
PYRIMIDINE DIMERS
REPAIR
SKIN DISEASES