Any process that results in a change in state or activity of a cell (in terms of movement, secretion, enzyme production, gene expression, etc.) as a result of a stimulus indicating damage to its DNA from environmental insults or errors during metabolism.

Any process that decreases the rate, frequency or extent of strand invasion. Strand invasion is the process in which the nucleoprotein complex (composed of the broken single-strand DNA and the recombinase) searches and identifies a region of homology in intact duplex DNA. The broken single-strand DNA displaces the like strand and forms Watson-Crick base pairs with its complement, forming a duplex in which each strand is from one of the two recombining DNA molecules.

An error-prone process for repairing damaged microbial DNA.

The rigid or semi-rigid envelope lying outside the cell membrane of plant, fungal, most prokaryotic cells and some protozoan parasites, maintaining their shape and protecting them from osmotic lysis. In plants it is made of cellulose and, often, lignin; in fungi it is composed largely of polysaccharides; in bacteria it is composed of peptidoglycan; in protozoan parasites such as Giardia species, it's made of carbohydrates and proteins.

The part of the cytoplasm that does not contain organelles but which does contain other particulate matter, such as protein complexes.

The membrane surrounding a cell that separates the cell from its external environment. It consists of a phospholipid bilayer and associated proteins.