"Adaptive response" - some underlying mechanisms and open questions
Abstract
Organisms are affected by different DNA damaging agents naturally present in the environment or released as a result of human activity. Many defense mechanisms have evolved in organisms to minimize genotoxic damage. One of them is induced radioresistance or adaptive response. The adaptive response could be considered as a nonspecific phenomenon in which exposure to minimal stress could result in increased resistance to higher levels of the same or to other types of stress some hours later. A better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the adaptive response may lead to an improvement of cancer treatment, risk assessment and risk management strategies, radiation protection, e. g. of astronauts during long-term space flights. In this mini-review we discuss some open questions and the probable underlying mechanisms involved in adaptive response: the transcription of many genes and the activation of numerous signaling pathways that trigger cell defenses - DNA repair systems, induction of proteins synthesis, enhanced detoxification of free radicals and antioxidant production.
Citation
Dimova , E G , Bryant , P E & Chankova , S G 2008 , ' "Adaptive response" - some underlying mechanisms and open questions ' , Genetics and Molecular Biology , vol. 31 , no. 2 , pp. 396-408 . https://doi.org/10.1590/S1415-47572008000300002
Publication
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1415-4757Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2008, Sociedade Brasileira de Genética. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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