Understanding the sequence and structural context effects in oxidative DNA damage repair

8-Oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG) is the major base damage in the genomic DNA by exposure to reactive oxygen species. Organisms have evolved various DNA repair mechanisms, such as base excision repair (BER) and nucleotide excision repair (NER), to protect the cellular genome from these mutagenic DNA lesions. The efficiency and capacity of BER and NER mechanisms can be modulated by the local sequence and structural contexts in which 8-oxoG is located. This graphical review summarizes the biochemical and structural studies that have provided insights into the impact of the microenvironment around the site of the lesion on oxidative DNA damage repair.