Defective thymine dimer excision by cell-free extracts of xeroderma pigmentosum cells.

Crude extracts of normal human diploid fibroblasts and of human peripheral blood lymphocytes excise thymine dimers from purified ultraviolet-irradiated DNA, or from the DNA presumably present as chromatin in unfractionated cell-free preparations of cells that had been labeled with [3H]thymidine. Extracts of xeroderma pigmentosum cells from complementation groups A, C, and D also excise thymine dimers from purified DNA, but extracts of group A cells do not excise dimers from the DNA of radioactively labeled unfractionated cell-free preparations.