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Repair of (6‐4) Lesions in DNA by (6‐4) Photolyase: 20 Years of Quest for the Photoreaction Mechanism
Author(s) -
Yamamoto Junpei,
Plaza Pascal,
Brettel Klaus
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/php.12696
Subject(s) - photolyase , mechanism (biology) , dna , dna repair , chemistry , biophysics , biology , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
Exposure of DNA to ultraviolet ( UV ) light from the Sun or from other sources causes the formation of harmful and carcinogenic crosslinks between adjacent pyrimidine nucleobases, namely cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and pyrimidine(6–4)pyrimidone photoproducts. Nature has developed unique flavoenzymes, called DNA photolyases, that utilize blue light, that is photons of lower energy than those of the damaging light, to repair these lesions. In this review, we focus on the chemically challenging repair of the (6–4) photoproducts by (6–4) photolyase and describe the major events along the quest for the reaction mechanisms, over the 20 years since the discovery of (6‐4) photolyase.