Biologists have revealed the deadly danger of sunlight

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Specialists from the School of Molecular Biology of Washington State University in the USA, having conducted a number of fundamental research, found out what other dangers for the human body, in addition to those already known to science, can hide the sun's rays.

As reported in the work of scientists, the influence of ultraviolet causes a previously unknown type of damage in human DNA.< /p>

Researchers irradiated yeast cells of 150 colonies with the light of ultraviolet lamps for eight seconds 15 times during a month. After that, DNA was isolated from the cells and subjected to whole-genome sequencing, that is, the full nucleotide sequence in the double chain was established.

Scientists thus managed to identify about 50 thousand mutations caused by ultraviolet light. About half of them turned out to be related to the development of melanoma.

According to biologists, until recently it was believed that damage from sunlight was limited to two DNA bases: cytosine (C) or thymine (T). However, the work revealed that mutations also sometimes affect adenine (A). At the same time, even a single and short-term exposure to ultraviolet – c also causes atypical mutations.

Melanoma, or skin cancer, is one of the most fatal malignant tumors, as it quickly leads to the formation of metastases. The main cause of this disease is considered to be prolonged exposure to direct sunlight.