Abstract

By removing biosynthetic errors from newly synthesized DNA, mismatch repair (MMR) improves the fidelity of DNA replication by several orders of magnitude. Loss of MMR brings about a mutator phenotype, which causes a predisposition to cancer. But MMR status also affects meiotic and mitotic recombination, DNA-damage signalling, apoptosis and cell-type-specific processes such as class-switch recombination, somatic hypermutation and triplet-repeat expansion. This article reviews our current understanding of this multifaceted DNA-repair system in human cells.

Author affiliations

1. Institute of Molecular Cancer Research, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
   Email: jiricny@imcr.unizh.ch

Published online 12 April 2006

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