Base damage and single-strand break repair: mechanisms and functional significance of short- and long-patch repair subpathways.
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.
Fortini
Paola
P
Department of Environment and Primary Prevention, Section of Molecular Epidemiology, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
Dogliotti
Eugenia
E
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
D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes