For decades, scientists have known that chromosomes are protected by repetitive DNA known as telomeres, which themselves are protected by a cap of six proteins called shelterin. Now, researchers in New York have shown what shelterin protects chromosomes from—six different DNA repair systems, including two not previously known to attack telomeres.
The study, published today (May 3) in Science, “represents the closing of one chapter in understanding telomere biology,” said biochemist Steve Jackson from the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the work. Though the results weren’t unexpected, added biochemist Stéphane Marcand from the University of Oxford, “the data in this paper provide a synthesis of the past 10 to 15 years of research in the field.”
Telomeric sequences at the ends of ...
