Germ Line Recombination May Be Primarily a Manifestation of DNA Repair Processes
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-21-1977
Description
Several kinds of DNA repair and reactivation processes have been found to occur by recombination in E. coli and its phages. Recombinational repair appears to be a major mechanism for overcoming lesions induced by various agents including ultraviolet light, X-rays, [32P]-decay, nitrous acid and psoralen-plus-light. When the lesions caused by the above agents are not repaired by recombinational repair or other accurate repair modes they generally lead to lethality. However a minority of these unrepaired lesions lead to mutations through replication errors or error-prone repair. In higher organisms accumulation of unrepaired lethal lesions or mutations in somatic cells may cause aging. Perpetuation of a species depends on preventing accumulation of these types of defects in the germ line. It is proposed that the recombinational acts occurring during meiosis may largely reflect the recombinational removal or repair of DNA lesions to conserve the germ line. It is further suggested that the repair function of recombination may be as significant as the better studied function of recombination, the generation of diversity. The ubiquitous occurrence of recombination in the biological world implies that it arose very early in evolution. The possibility that recombination initially arose as a repair process is discussed.
Citation Information
Bernstein, Harris. 1977. Germ Line Recombination May Be Primarily a Manifestation of DNA Repair Processes. Journal of Theoretical Biology. Vol.69(2). 371-380. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(77)90144-8 PMID: 339000 ISSN: 0022-5193