Guanine oxidation: One- and two-electron reactions

Guanine bases in DNA are the most sensitive to oxidation. A lot of effort has been devoted to the understanding of the chemical modifications of guanine under different oxidizing conditions, the final goal being to know which lesions in DNA can be expected in vivo and their biological consequences. This article analyses the mechanisms underlying guanine oxidation by the comparison between one- and two-electron transfer processes. The different oxidants used in vitro give complementary answers. This overview presents a choice of some key intermediates and the predictive description of G-oxidation products that can be generated from these intermediates depending on the reaction conditions.