**4.6 Other pathways**

As it has been previously described in this chapter, mitochondria have a repertoire of elements to deal with DNA damage, even it has been observed that mitochondria possess a mechanism to "prevent" further lesions (described below). However, if the mtDNA lesions surpass the mitochondrial repair capabilities, the cell maintains other options to avoid a higher damage, and in these circumstances, it is possible to degrade the unrepairable mtDNA, the organelle or even the whole cell [10].
