title: A mechanism for the control of patch size in mammalian cell DNA excision repair.
abstract: The hypothesis is suggested that size of the region excised in repair of UV-induced damage in mammalian cell is determined by the occurrence at random of a recognition sequence which terminates this excision process. The statistics of first occurrence times for a specific nucleotide sequence in a random chain are derived and shown to lead to an approximately random distribution of sizes around the average. The heterogeneity in sizes arising from a model are shown not to conflict with existing measurements. A sequence of length three or four is sufficient to account for the measured average size.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine; D004247:DNA / Q000528:radiation effects; D004260:DNA Repair; D008322:Mammals; D008954:Models, Biological; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010782:Photolysis; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine