Fanconi anaemia pathway suggests that the most physiologically toxic lesion caused by aldehydes may be a DNA interstrand crosslink. However, if it is indeed an interstrand crosslink, then the factors involved in translesion synthesis or homologous recombination processes are distinct from the previously described mechanism of interstrand-crosslink repair6,14,15,28. It will be important to resolve the nature of the lesion and the precise mechanics of its repair.
