Mechanism of cell killing after ionizing radiation by a dominant negative DNA polymerase beta.

Several types of DNA lesion are induced after ionizing irradiation (IR) of which double strand breaks (DSBs) are expected to be the most lethal, although single strand breaks (SSBs) and DNA base damages are quantitatively in the majority. Proteins of the base excision repair (BER) pathway repair these numerous lesions. DNA polymerase beta has been identified as a crucial enzyme in BER and SSB repair (SSBR).