Table of Contents
- 1 What is the term for a physical or chemical agent that causes damage to DNA?
- 2 What are the chemicals that cause damage to DNA known as?
- 3 What are the agents of DNA damage?
- 4 What are physical mutagenic agents?
- 5 Can chemicals damage DNA?
- 6 What causes DNA mutations?
- 7 How do chemicals cause mutations in DNA?
- 8 What kind of DNA damage is caused by carcinogens?
- 9 Where does the majority of DNA damage come from?
What is the term for a physical or chemical agent that causes damage to DNA?
A mutagen is a substance or agent that causes DNA impairment that results in the alteration of the DNA sequence. This alteration of the DNA sequence is known as mutation. Any agent causing mutation is called mutagen. Mutagens can be physical mutagens, chemical mutagens, or biological mutagens.
What are the chemicals that cause damage to DNA known as?
Carcinogens are categorised as being chemical or physical agents [3], causing DNA damage attributable to their physico-chemical properties, such as DNA molecule distortion or DNA cross-linking [3–6].
What are the agents of DNA damage?
Upper panel shows representative DNA damaging agents: errors from replication, spontaneous base deamination, alkylating agents, toxins, oxidative agents, ionizing radiation, UV radiation, crosslinking agents, aromatic compounds and environmental agents such as heat, cold and hypoxia.
What causes damage to DNA?
DNA damage occurs continuously as a result of various factors—intracellular metabolism, replication, and exposure to genotoxic agents, such as ionizing radiation and chemotherapy. If left unrepaired, this damage could result in changes or mutations within the cell genomic material.
Are physical or chemical agents that can cause mutations?
The chemical or physical agents that cause mutations are called mutagens. Examples of physical mutagens are ultraviolet (UV) and gamma radiation. Radiation exerts its mutagenic effect either directly or by creating free radicals that in turn have mutagenic effects.
What are physical mutagenic agents?
Physical mutagens include electromagnetic radiation, such as gamma rays, X rays, and UV light, and particle radiation, such as fast and thermal neutrons, beta and alpha particles. Mutagenic treatment of seeds is the most convenient and, therefore, the standard method in seed propagated crops.
Can chemicals damage DNA?
Exposure to methylating agents, which are used in the lab and in chemotherapy, can cause an unexpected form of DNA damage, a new study reveals. These chemicals can methylate guanosine bases in DNA, forming N7-methyl-2′-deoxyguanosine (MdG).
What causes DNA mutations?
Mutations can result from DNA copying mistakes made during cell division, exposure to ionizing radiation, exposure to chemicals called mutagens, or infection by viruses.
How do you repair damaged DNA?
Most damage to DNA is repaired by removal of the damaged bases followed by resynthesis of the excised region. Some lesions in DNA, however, can be repaired by direct reversal of the damage, which may be a more efficient way of dealing with specific types of DNA damage that occur frequently.
What is meant by DNA damage?
DNA damage is a change in the basic structure of DNA that is not itself replicated when the DNA is replicated. A DNA damage can be a chemical addition or disruption to a base of DNA (creating an abnormal nucleotide or nucleotide fragment) or a break in one or both chains of the DNA strands.
How do chemicals cause mutations in DNA?
There are several ways in which chemicals can induce point mutations. One of the most common is by forming adducts with a particular base in the DNA. Many chemicals that interact with DNA do so by forming covalent bonds between an electrophilic part of the molecule and a nucleophilic part of DNA.
What kind of DNA damage is caused by carcinogens?
One might reasonably surmise from this that carcinogens found in our environment or diet are culpable. Exposure to carcinogens is associated with various forms of DNA damage such as single-stand breaks, double-strand breaks, covalently bound chemical DNA adducts, oxidative-induced lesions and DNA–DNA or DNA–protein cross-links.
Where does the majority of DNA damage come from?
DNA damage can be categorized into two main classes based on its origin: endogenous and exogenous. The majority of the endogenous DNA damage arises from the chemically active DNA engaging in hydrolytic and oxidative reactions with water and reactive oxygen species (ROS), respectively, that are naturally present within cells.
How does metal ions affect the repair of DNA?
The metal ions work by producing ROS (reactive oxygen species), hindering the DNA repair pathway, causing DNA hypermethylation, or may directly damage the DNA.
What kind of ions are dangerous to DNA?
Metal ions are also dangerous to our DNA because it acts in styles of other ways. Nickel, chromium, cobalt, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, and iron are a number of the standard metal ions that cause mutations.