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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

Simultaneous Mapping and Quantitation of Ribonucleotides in Human Mitochondrial DNA
Published on: November 14, 2017
The Balancing Act of Ribonucleotides in DNA
Susana M Cerritelli1, Robert J Crouch1
1Section on Formation of RNA, Division of Developmental Biology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Abstract:
The abundance of ribonucleotides in DNA remained undetected until recently because they are efficiently removed by the ribonucleotide excision repair (RER) pathway, a process similar to Okazaki fragment (OF) processing after incision by Ribonuclease H2 (RNase H2). All DNA polymerases incorporate ribonucleotides during DNA synthesis. How many, when, and why they are incorporated has been the focus of intense work during recent years by many labs. In this review, we discuss recent advances in ribonucleotide incorporation by eukaryotic DNA polymerases that suggest an evolutionarily conserved role for ribonucleotides in DNA. We also review the data that indicate that removal of ribonucleotides has an important role in maintaining genome stability.
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