AI Article Synopsis
- Researchers have created various biomimetic systems to imitate photolyase for repairing UV-damaged DNA, but these systems demonstrate low efficiency.
- A study mapped the repair process of flavin-thymine dimer adducts with femtosecond resolution, revealing that direct electron transfer from excited flavin to thymine occurs in just 79 picoseconds.
- The research identified two competing processes: effective dimer ring splitting happening within 435 picoseconds and a quick, unproductive back electron transfer occurring in 95 picoseconds, showing that the brief lifespan of the excited flavin is a key reason for low repair efficiency.
Article Abstract
To mimic photolyase for efficient repair of UV-damaged DNA, numerous biomimetic systems have been synthesized, but all show low repair efficiency. The molecular mechanism of this low-efficiency process is still poorly understood. Here we report our direct mapping of the repair processes of a flavin-thymine dimer adduct with femtosecond resolution. We followed the entire dynamic evolution and observed direct electron transfer (ET) from the excited flavin to the thymine dimer in 79 ps. We further observed two competitive pathways, productive dimer ring splitting within 435 ps and futile back-ET in 95 ps. Our observations reveal that the underlying mechanism for the low repair quantum yield of flavin-thymine dimer adducts is the short-lived excited flavin moiety and the fast dynamics of futile back-ET without repair.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3269208 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja2112788 | DOI Listing |
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