| Summary: | This volume is about DNA damage and repair. It covers recent advances in several important research areas of this rapidly expanding field, and does so at several levels, from individual molecules to organisms. The topics include mechanisms of damage recognition by DNA repair enzymes, chromatin response to DNA damage, special ways of mutagenesis, biomarkers of genotoxicity, and the integrated organism response to genotoxic and other kinds of stress. The book starts with two chapters about structural and mechanistic features of protein-DNA interactions that ensure fast and reliable discrimination between targets - be it DNA modifications or specific sequences - and non-targets. Examples of particular proteins and their function in repair regulation, translesion synthesis and chromatin remodeling are discussed in the following three chapters. Next, more attention is given to the mutagenic consequences of failed or aberrant DNA repair, particularly in mitochondria and in runs of trinucleotide repeats. Moving to a human health-oriented view, the book presents data on two kinds of lesions, the widely found 8-oxoguanine and the dietary genotoxic adducts with aristolochic acids, as biomarkers of general oxidative stress and specific exposure, respectively. Two final chapters are devoted to the interplay of multiple factors, including genotoxic stress, in the complex phenotypes in humans (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ) and plants (abiotic stress response). This volume will be of significant interest for scientists working in the field of DNA repair as well as for the general biochemistry and molecular biology audience.
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