Mechanisms of DNA damage recognition in mammalian cells

In response to a plethora of genotoxic reactions, all forms of life ranging from bacteria to man possess multiple systems for either repairing damage inflicted on DNA or, alternatively, increasing their tolerance to it. This book summarizes existing knowledge on how these DNA damage processing pathways are selectively targeted to defective sites in the mammalian genome. It discusses the biological, clinical and toxicological implications of DNA damage recognition in a comprehensive manner. For example, DNA adducts formed by the anticancer drug cisplatin are recognized by excision repair factors, transcription factors, DNA polymerases, RNA polymerases or recombination factors. The consequences of each of these molecular recognition functions are discussed in detail.