Thymine Dimers
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Dimers can form between adjacent nucleotides on the same DNA strand, in particular adjacent Thymines, as a result of exposure to UV radiation (around 254nm). The dimers form a barrier to any template-based reaction such as transcription and replication, so they must be repaired.
Repair of thymine dimers can involve light-dependent photoreactivation, which is shown below, or involve nucleotide excision repair which is discussed elsewhere.
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The following video shows the process of dimer repair:
| DNA Mutation | Table of Contents |