The UV part of sunlight is known to induce a variety of genome defects
. These lesions are the major cause of skin cancer development. In ord
er to counter such toxic effects cells have developed a number of soph
isticated DNA repair systems, like nucleotide excision repair and phot
oreactivation. The repair machinery is able to specifically recognize
sunlight-induced DNA lesions and to subsequently remove this damage. M
alfunctioning repair systems are responsible for the three rare geneti
c diseases Xeroderma pigmentosum, Cockayne's syndrome, and trichothiod
ystrophy. In this review article, the structure of the major sunlight-
induced lesions will de discussed. An overview of the two major repair
mechanisms, photoreactivation and excision repair, is given, and the
effects of the DNA lesions on the p53 gene and on tumor genesis are di
scussed.