Double Strand Breaks in DNA Inhibit Nucleotide Excision Repair in Vitro*

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) was measured in human cell extracts incubated with either supercoiled or linearized damaged plasmid DNA as repair substrate. NER, as quantified by the extent of repair synthesis activity, was reduced by up to 80% in the case of linearized plasmid DNA when compared with supercoiled DNA. An excess of undamaged linearized plasmid in the repair mixture did not interfere with DNA repair synthesis activity on a supercoiled damaged plasmid, indicating a cis-acting inhibiting effect.