The type of DNA repair mechanism used depends on the nature of the damage: - Nucleotide excision repair (NER) corrects bulky lesions. - Base excision repair (BER) fixes small, non-helix-distorting base lesions. - Homologous recombination (HR) repairs DSBs using a sister chromatid as a template. - Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) directly ligates the broken DNA ends, often with some loss of nucleotides.
