Title: damage to deoxyribonucleic acid
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - damage to deoxyribonucleic acid
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.09693
Status: current

Definition
Alteration in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) chemical structure resulting from interactions with physical or chemical agents occurring in the environment, generated in the organisms as by-products of metabolism, or used as therapeutics.

Notes
1) The main types of DNA damage include the interruption of the sugar-phosphate backbone (strand breaks) or the release of bases due to hydrolysis of N-glycosidic bonds (resulting in abasic sites), inter- and intra-strand crosslinks (such as pyrimidine dimers), and a variety of nucleobase lesions (adducts) resulting from reactions of DNA with a broad range of oxidants, alkylating compounds, and other agents.
2) Terms "(product of) DNA damage" (lesion, adduct) and "mutation" should not be intermingled. Mutations refer to hereditable changes in DNA sequence—substitutions, deletions, or insertions of (one or more) standard base pair(s) and are not synonyms to "base mismatches". Importantly, DNA damage and its repair can promote the occurrence of mutations.

Source
- PAC, 2018, 90, 1121. 'Terminology of bioanalytical methods (IUPAC Recommendations 2018)' on page 1144 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2016-1120)

Other Outputs
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- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09693/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09693/xml

Citation: Citation: 'damage to deoxyribonucleic acid' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09693
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Accessed: 2026-07-24T14:00:23+00:00