Table 1.

Exonucleases functions and associated diseases.

Name	Polarity	DNA	Function	Disease	Clinical feature	Ref.
MRE11	3′–5′	DS	Recombination	Ataxia-telangiectasia-like syndrome; Nijmegen breakage syndrome	Progressive cerebellar degeneration; increased cancer incidence, cell cycle checkpoint defects, and ionizing radiation sensitivity.	18,113,114
EXO1	5′–3′	DS	Repair	Tumor; immune deficiency	Tumor suppression.	115
WRN	3′–5′	DS	Repair; telomeres	Werner syndrome	Premature aging.	116,117
TREX1	3′–5′	SS/DS	removal/proofreading?	AGS syndrome	Upregulated type I interferon.	64,118

DS: double stranded DNA; SS: single stranded DNA; AGS syndrome: Aicardi Goutières syndrome.