Looking beneath the surface to determine what makes DNA damage deleterious

- Abasic lesions are transformed spontaneously and through enzyme catalyzed reactions into more deleterious forms of DNA damage.
- Abasic lesions for interstrand DNA cross-links.
- Oxidized abasic lesions irreversibly inactivate DNA polymerase β, a vital component of base excision repair.
- Histones catalyze DNA strand scission from abasic lesions and undergo lysine modification.
- Abasic site reactivity provides insight into the mechanism of action of DNA damaging agents that produce these lesions.