Researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA with the aid of physics and a tiny magnet Discovery in Genetic Protective Layer. Telomeres are seen by many scientists as the key to living longer.
Researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA with the aid of physics and a tiny magnet. Telomeres are seen by many scientists as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter each time a cell divides. Genetic Protective Layer, If they become too short, the cell dies. This breakthrough discovery will help us understand aging and disease. When you hear DNA mentioned, physics is usually not the first scientific discipline that springs to mind. However, John van Noort from the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) in the Netherlands is one of the scientists who found the new DNA structure. As a biophysicist, he uses methods from physics for biological experiments. This also caught the attention of biologists from Nanyan Technological University in Singapore, who asked him to help study the DNA structure of telomeres. They published the results on September 14 in the scientific journal Nature. Because the DNA between the telomeres is two meters long, it has to be folded to fit in a cell.
This is achieved by wrapping the DNA around packages of proteins. Together, the DNA and proteins are known as a nucleosome. These are arranged into something similar to a string of beads, with a nucleosome, a piece of free (or unbound) DNA, a nucleosome, and so on. Genetic Protective Layer, This string of beads then folds up even more. How it does so depends on the length of the DNA between the nucleosomes, the beads on the string. Two structures that occur after folding were already known. In one of them, two adjacent beads stick together and free DNA hangs in between (figure 2A). If the piece of DNA between the beads is shorter, the adjacent beads do not manage to stick together. Then two stacks form alongside each other (figure 2B). In their study, Van Noort and colleagues discovered another telomere structure. Here the nucleosomes are much closer together, so there is no longer any free DNA between the beads. This ultimately creates one big helix, or spiral, of DNA (figure 2C).
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