title: Base damage and single-strand break repair: mechanisms and functional significance of short- and long-patch repair subpathways.
abstract: A large variety of DNA lesions induced by environmental agents or arising as an outcome of cellular metabolism are counteracted by a complex network of proteins that belong to the base excision repair/single strand break repair (BER/SSBR) processes. No matter whether the initial lesions are modified DNA bases or single-strand breaks with non-conventional termini these processes are completed either by replacement of a single (short-patch, SP) or more (long-patch, LP) nucleotides by different arrays of proteins. Here, the factors that are involved in the selection between SP- and LP-BER/SSBR are reviewed. The biological significance of these alternative subpathways is also presented as inferred from mutant mouse/cell models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Primary Prevention, Section of Molecular Epidemiology, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fortini
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dogliotti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D053904:DNA Breaks, Single-Stranded; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000235:genetics*; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics; D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004777:Environment; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains
chemical_list: D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes