The large surface area of the small intestine primarily supp…
Questions
The lаrge surfаce аrea оf the small intestine primarily suppоrts which оf the following functions?
Ultrаviоlet (UV) rаdiаtiоn is a pоtent mutagen that induces the formation of pyrimidine dimers, specifically cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and 6-4 photoproducts. These lesions arise when adjacent thymine or cytosine bases become covalently linked, distorting the DNA helix and impeding processes such as transcription and replication. If left unrepaired, pyrimidine dimers can cause mutations, potentially leading to carcinogenesis, as seen in diseases like xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and skin cancers. Cells utilize multiple DNA repair pathways to address UV-induced damage. Photoreactivation, present in many prokaryotes and some lower eukaryotes, involves photolyase, which uses visible light to directly cleave the dimerized bases, restoring the normal DNA structure. However, humans lack this pathway. Instead, human cells primarily rely on nucleotide excision repair (NER), which detects helix-distorting lesions, excises a short DNA segment containing the dimer, and fills the gap using DNA polymerase and DNA ligase. When DNA replication encounters an unrepaired pyrimidine dimer, translesion synthesis (TLS) allows specialized DNA polymerases, such as DNA polymerase η, to bypass the lesion. Although TLS prevents replication stalling, it is error-prone and may introduce mutations. Base excision repair (BER) plays a minor role in handling some oxidative derivatives of pyrimidine dimers, while homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) address double-strand breaks that may arise due to replication fork collapse at dimer-induced damage sites. A scientist exposes E. coli cells to UV light and observes rapid repair of pyrimidine dimers when the cells are subsequently placed under visible light. Which of the following best explains this observation?