title: The current state of eukaryotic DNA base damage and repair.
abstract: DNA damage is a natural hazard of life. The most common DNA lesions are base, sugar, and single-strand break damage resulting from oxidation, alkylation, deamination, and spontaneous hydrolysis. If left unrepaired, such lesions can become fixed in the genome as permanent mutations. Thus, evolution has led to the creation of several highly conserved, partially redundant pathways to repair or mitigate the effects of DNA base damage. The biochemical mechanisms of these pathways have been well characterized and the impact of this work was recently highlighted by the selection of Tomas Lindahl, Aziz Sancar and Paul Modrich as the recipients of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their seminal work in defining DNA repair pathways. However, how these repair pathways are regulated and interconnected is still being elucidated. This review focuses on the classical base excision repair and strand incision pathways in eukaryotes, considering both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and humans, and extends to some important questions and challenges facing the field of DNA base damage repair.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA Graduate Program in Biochemistry, Cell, and Developmental Biology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA acorbe2@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Anita H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Corbett
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA medpwd@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Doetsch
mesh_terms: D053904:DNA Breaks, Single-Stranded; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D045643:DNA Repair Enzymes