How do DNA components resist to damaging UV exposure?

The genetic material of DNA contains shielding mechanisms to protect itself from the exposure to the UV light emitted by the sun. This is of crucial importance, since without photostability – i.e. without "programmed" defense mechanisms against UV irradiation – a rapid degradation of DNA and RNA would be the consequence. As part of a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) a group of researchers led by Hans Lischka, Quantum Chemist of the University of Vienna, Austria, could, for the first time, comprehensively unravel these ultra-fast processes of the photostability of the nucleobases. In this context a publication appeared in the current issue of the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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