Distinct mechanisms of mutagenic processing of alternative DNA structures by repair proteins.

Repetitive sequences can form a variety of alternative DNA structures (non-B DNA) that can modulate transcription, replication, and repair. However, non-B DNA-forming sequences can also stimulate mutagenesis, and are enriched at mutation hotspots in human cancer genomes. Interestingly, different types of non-B DNA stimulate mutagenesis via distinct repair processing mechanisms.