1. State one reason why the process of DNA repair is important. Use no more than two sentences (3 points).
There are many reasons why DNA repair is important. Perhaps the most important for us is that complex organisms such as human beings could not exist without it. Even in the absence of external mutagens, the rate of spontaneous DNA damage is so high that all of our cells would quickly die if all of their pathways for repairing damage were simultaneously inactivated. As you know, if even just one repair pathway is inactivated, the resulting genomic instability usually leads to cancer (as in the case of inactivation of NER, which leads to the cancer-prone disease, Xeroderma pigmentosum).
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