Photobiology of Monodelphis domestica.

The gray, short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica, has been used for photobiologic studies since 1984. The presence of a light-activated DNA repair pathway in the tissues of Monodelphis has been used to identify pyrimidine dimers in DNA as initiating events for a number of ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-induced pathologies of the skin and cornea. Furthermore, Monodelphis, unlike common laboratory rodents, is susceptible to the induction of melanoma by UVR alone.