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DNA Damage
DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA damage, resulting in tens of thousands of individual molecular lesions per cell per day. Many of these lesions cause structural damage to the DNA molecule and can alter or eliminate the cell's ability to transcribe the gene that the affected DNA encodes. Other lesions induce potentially harmful mutations in the cell's genome, which affect the survival of its daughter cells after it undergoes mitosis. As a consequence, the DNA repair process is constantly active as it responds to damage in the DNA structure. When normal repair processes fail, and when cellular apoptosis does not occur, irreparable DNA damage may occur, including double-strand breaks and DNA crosslinkages (interstrand crosslinks or ICLs). This can eventually lead to maligna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molecular Lesion
A molecular lesion or point lesion is damage to the structure of a Biomolecule, biological molecule such as DNA, RNA, or protein. This damage may result in the reduction or absence of normal function, and in rare cases the gain of a new function. Lesions in DNA may consist of breaks or other changes in chemical structure of the helix, ultimately preventing transcription. Meanwhile, lesions in proteins consist of both broken bonds and improper Protein folding, folding of the Amino acid, amino acid chain. While many nucleic acid lesions are general across DNA and RNA, some are specific to one, such as Pyrimidine dimer, thymine dimers being found exclusively in DNA. Several cellular DNA repair#Types of damage, repair mechanisms exist, ranging from global to specific, in order to prevent lasting damage resulting from lesions. Causes There are two broad causes of nucleic acid lesions, endogenous and exogenous factors. Endogenous factors, or Endogeny (biology), endogeny, refer to the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
