Base excision repair

Definition

Base excision repair (BER) is a cellular mechanism, studied in the fields of biochemistry and genetics, that repairs damaged DNA throughout the cell cycle. It is responsible primarily for removing small, non-helix-distorting base lesions from the genome. The related nucleotide excision repair pathway repairs bulky helix-distorting lesions. BER is important for removing damaged bases that could otherwise cause mutations by mispairing or lead to breaks in DNA during replication. BER is initiated by DNA glycosylases, which recognize and remove specific damaged or inappropriate bases, forming AP sites. These are then cleaved by an AP endonuclease. The resulting single-strand break can then be processed by either short-patch or long-patch BER.

Related concepts

3-methyladenine 5-Methylcytosine 5-hydroxymethylcytosine 5-methylcytosine 7-methylguanosine 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine 8-Oxoguanine 8-oxoguanine APE1 APE2 APOBEC3G AP endonuclease AP lyase AP site Adaptive response Adenine Apn1 Apn2 BRCA1 BRIP1 Biochemistry Bloom syndrome protein Brain-derived neurotrophic factor CRY1 CRY2 Cancer epigenetics Carcinogenesis Cognition Colon cancer Colorectal cancer CpG site Cytosine DDB1 DNA-3-methyladenine glycosylase DNA Polymerase DNA base flipping DNA demethylation DNA glycosylase DNA ligase DNA methylation DNA mismatch repair DNA oxidation DNA polymerase DNA polymerase beta DNA polymerase lambda DNA repair DNA replication Deamination Deletion (genetics)Directionality (molecular biology)Downregulation and upregulation ERCC1 ERCC2 ERCC4 ERCC5 ERCC6 ERCC8 (gene)Endonuclease IV Epigenetics Excinuclease Excision repair cross-complementing Exonuclease III FANCA FANCB FANCD2 FANCE FANCF FANCG FANCI FANCL FANCM FANC proteins FEN1 Fanconi anemia, complementation group C Fear conditioning Flap endonuclease Gene promoter Gene silencing Genetics Glycosidic bond Helicase Hippocampus Homologous recombination Homology directed repair Hoogsteen base pair Host-cell reactivation Hydantoin Hypoxanthine Intron Ku (protein)LexA MBD4 MLH1 MSH2 MUTYH Medical Subject Headings Meiotic recombination checkpoint Memory Messenger RNA Microhomology-mediated end joining Mutation NEIL1 Neoplasm Neurobiological effects of physical exercise Non-homologous end joining Non-small-cell lung carcinoma Nucleotide excision repair O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase Okazaki fragment Oxoguanine glycosylase P53 PALB2 PCNA PNKP PcrA Photolyase Poly ADP ribose polymerase Postreplication repair Proliferating cell nuclear antigen Protein O-GlcNAc transferase Pyrimidine RAD23A RAD23B RAD51 RecA RecBCD RecF pathway RecQ helicase Replication protein A SMUG1 SOS box SOS response Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sgs1 Single-nucleotide polymorphism Slx4 TRAMP complex Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 1 Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 3 Thymidine Thymine Thymine-DNA glycosylase Thymine glycol Transcription-coupled repair Transition (genetics)Uracil Uracil-DNA glycosylase Werner syndrome ATP-dependent helicase White blood cell XPA XPB XPC (gene)XRCC1 Xanthine

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