From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 22:58:23 MDT
Dunno how important this is, from http://www.grg.org/breakingnews.html ,
where there are also some links on adult stem cell advances.
Cell Biology: Telomeric Ends in Sight
June 20, 2002; Telomeres, the physical ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, are
made up of short repeats of
the same DNA sequence and serve to protect genes from damage. Breakdowns in
telomere maintenance
are implicated in both aging and cancer. Telomeric DNA sequences can form
four-stranded structures
and the crystal structure of one such quadruplex grown at a Potassium
concentration like that inside a
human cell has been determined, revealing DNA folding fundamentally
different from previously
published Sodium-containing structures. The new DNA structure suggests a
straightforward path for
telomere folding and unfolding.
Ref:
Gary N. Parkinson, Michael P. H. Lee, and Stephen Neidle, "Crystal
Structure of Parallel Quadruplexes
from Human Telomeric DNA," Nature, Vol. 417, pp. 876 80 (June 20, 2002).
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