Investigation of bacterial nucleotide excision repair using single-molecule techniques

Despite three decades of biochemical and structural analysis of the prokaryotic nucleotide excision repair (NER) system, many intriguing questions remain with regard to how the UvrA, UvrB, and UvrC proteins detect, verify and remove a wide range of DNA lesions. Single-molecule techniques have begun to allow more detailed understanding of the kinetics and action mechanism of this complex process. This article reviews how atomic force microscopy and fluorescence microscopy have captured new glimpses of how these proteins work together to mediate NER.