Double trouble at chromosome ends: New study alters our understanding of telomere biology

Phys.org

Center

High Factuality

Double trouble at chromosome ends: New study alters our understanding of telomere biology

Half a century ago, scientists Jim Watson and Alexey Olovnikov independently realized that there was a problem with how our DNA gets copied. A quirk of linear DNA replication dictated that telomeres that protect the ends of chromosomes should have been growing shorter with each round of replication, a phenomenon known as the end-replication problem.