Nucleotide Excision Repair

The first 200 words of this essay...

The Importance of DNA Repair Systems and Process of Nucleotide Excision Repair

Name: Thien Nguyen

ID: 20299974

TA: Kristyna Wilson

Bio 130 Tutorial

Tuesday, November 10th 2009

As we go about our daily lives, our cells are hard at work to maintain our well-being. Whether it is providing the energy required doing everyday tasks or just repairing what has been damaged from the constant bombardment of harmful forces, the cell is a formidable force on its own. And it should, because within every cell, DNA enclosed, which is the genetic information that houses the instructions for an organism to function and also a very vulnerable part of the cell to harmful alterations. With radiation, the backbone of a DNA is broken, when exposed to reactive chemicals or UV light; the DNA's bases can be altered structurally (Karp, 2008). While there are many mechanisms for repair for DNA, the nucleotide excision repair (NER) is one of the most effective and versatile repair systems within the cell that acts on the DNA. The reasons for this is because of its ability to recognize, remove a wide variety of alterations in the DNA called lesions, and replacing