damage to dna

What Mechanisms Do Cells Employ to Repair DNA Damage?

Cells have several repair mechanisms to maintain genomic integrity:
Nucleotide excision repair (NER): Repairs bulky DNA adducts and thymine dimers.
Base excision repair (BER): Fixes small base modifications and single-strand breaks.
Mismatch repair (MMR): Corrects errors that occur during DNA replication.
Homologous recombination (HR): Repairs double-strand breaks using a sister chromatid as a template.
Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ): Repairs double-strand breaks without a template.
Impairment in any of these repair pathways can lead to increased mutation rates and cancer development.

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