ABSTRACT
NER is one of the most versatile DNA repair systems, because this pathway does not depend on recognition of the lesion per se, but rather identifi es distortions induced in the DNA structure. By utilizing this clever mechanism of DNA damage recognition, NER is able to repair a wide variety of chemically distinct DNA lesions. There are two subpathways of NER based on the mechanism used to identify the DNA damage. If a lesion is found in the bulk of the genome, then repair is mediated by general genome repair (GGR). However, if the DNA lesion is discovered by the transcription apparatus during RNA synthesis, then repair proceeds via transcriptioncoupled repair (TCR). After lesion recognition, the biochemical steps for removal of the target damage and restoration of the original DNA content are similar between to the two pathways (Fig. 3).
