Question

explain why bacterial mismatch repair is only effective on mutations that occur during the replication process.

Answer 1

explain why bacterial mismatch repair is only effective on mutations that occur during the replication process.

DNA mismatch repair is a system in which there would be recognition of the insertions that are error prone along with a recognition of deletion as well as the bases that are misincorporated. Also, there would be repair of certain forms of the damaged DNA. This form of repair is specific to the particular strand in which it is taking place. At the time of DNA synthesis ther may commonly be errors found on the strand that is newly synthesised. As a result of starting repair, there would be a differentiation between the parental strand and the strand that is newly synthesised. Thus, mismatch repair is only employed during replication.

This is particularly important in the eukaryotes where the strand that is newly synthesised would be having nicks, before being filled with the enzyme DNA ligase. Further, these lags would be directing the mismatch repair system of proofreading.