click to enlarge The 46 human chromosomes are shown in blue,
with the telomeres appearing as white pinpoints. The DNA has
already been copied, so each chromosome is actually made up of
two identical lengths of DNA, each with its own two telomeres.
Image source: NIGMS. Media contact: Les Lang, (919) 966-9366,
firstname.lastname@example.org Thursday, April 21, 2011 CHAPEL
HILL, N.C. – A study of DNA rearrangements in roundworm
chromosomes may offer new insight into large-scale genome
duplications that occur in developing tumors. A report of the
research led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Medicine scientists is published in the April 22
online edition of the journal Science. The study focused on
telomeres, a region of repetitive DNA sequence that protects the
ends of chromosomes from deterioration or from fusing with other
chromosomes. In many organisms, including humans, chromosome
ends are capped by simple repetitive sequences that are
replenished by addition of new telomere repeats b