Topic summary
Spore photoproduct
Extracted from the Wikipedia article 5,6-Dihydro-5(α-thyminyl)thymine.
5,6-Dihydro-5(α-thyminyl)thymine is a DNA pyrimidine dimerphotoproduct produced when DNA in bacterial spores is exposed to ultraviolet light. In bacteria, this DNA base dimer deforms the structure of DNA, so endospore forming bacteria have an enzyme called spore photoproduct lyase that repairs this damage.