Link Between DNA Palindromes and Disease
Long DNA sequences, or palindromes, change the shape of the molecule from double helix to hairpin-like formation, which causes replication to stall. Altered or stalled replication causes chromosomal breaking, resulting in cancers and diseases. In the past 10 years, researchers in genome stability have observed that many kinds of cancers are associated with areas where human chromosomes break. More recently, scientists have discovered that slow or altered replication causes chromosomal breaking. But why does DNA replication stall? In a Tufts University study published in the July 14 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a team of biologists have found a relationship between peculiar DNA sequences named palindromes and replication delays. Read More...
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