base excision repair

base excision repair, pathway by which cells repair damaged DNA during DNA replication. Base excision repair helps ensure that mutations are not incorporated into DNA as it is copied.

Single bases of DNA (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine) are susceptible to damage by spontaneous alkylation (transfer of an alkyl group), deamination (removal of an amine group), and oxidation (damage by reactive oxygen species). The damage may lead to incorrect base pairing, resulting in the substitution of bases or the deletion of a base. These mutations are then perpetuated.

Base excision repair involves five basic steps, beginning with the identification and removal of the mutated base from the DNA helix by an enzyme known as DNA glycosylase. Next, an enzyme called AP (apurinic/apyrimidinic) endonuclease makes an incision at the abasic site, creating a break, or nick, in the strand of DNA. The site is then “cleaned,” in which various intermediates produced from the strand break and other lingering chemicals are enzymatically removed in preparation for repair synthesis. In the final two steps, one or more nucleotides are synthesized to fill the gap, and the nick in the DNA strand is sealed. (A nucleotide is a base linked to a sugar and phosphate group, which forms the backbone of DNA.)

DNA glycosylase has the ability to recognize a number of different damaged bases. It is also able to remove any DNA bases that are cytotoxic (harmful to the cell) or that may cause DNA polymerase (an enzyme involved in DNA replication) to make errors. Some DNA glycosylases have been shown to be bifunctional, performing the aforementioned activity as well as possessing lyase activity, which enables it to cleave the DNA backbone at the abasic site. A large number of DNA glycosylases are known. Examples include uracil DNA glycosylases, single-strand selective monofunctional uracil-DNA glycosylase (SMUG1), and thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG).