Handle with care: Telomeres resemble DNA fragile sites
Thursday, July 9, 2009 - 16:28
in Biology & Nature
Although telomeres are fragile, they don’t have to be handled with care. Researchers at Rockefeller University now show that what keeps our fragile telomeres from falling apart is a protein known as TRF1 that ensures the smooth progression of DNA replication to the end of a chromosome. The work not only shows how telomeres help chromosomes protect their vulnerable ends but also reveals how the genome is made more stable by them.