bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.388108; this version posted November 18, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Deficiency in DNA mismatch repair of methylation damage is a major 2 mutational process in cancer 3 1 1 1 1 1,* 4 Hu Fang , Xiaoqiang Zhu , Jieun Oh , Jayne A. Barbour , Jason W. H. Wong 5 6 1School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of 7 Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 8 9 *Correspondence:
[email protected] 10 11 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.388108; this version posted November 18, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Abstract 2 DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is essential for maintaining genome integrity with its 3 deficiency predisposing to cancer1. MMR is well known for its role in the post- 4 replicative repair of mismatched base pairs that escape proofreading by DNA 5 polymerases following cell division2. Yet, cancer genome sequencing has revealed that 6 MMR deficient cancers not only have high mutation burden but also harbour multiple 7 mutational signatures3, suggesting that MMR has pleotropic effects on DNA repair. The 8 mechanisms underlying these mutational signatures have remained unclear despite 9 studies using a range of in vitro4,5 and in vivo6 models of MMR deficiency.