Nov. 21, 2012 Chromosomes -- long, linear DNA molecules - are
capped at their ends with special DNA structures called
telomeres and an assortment of proteins, which together act as a
protective sheath. Telomeres are maintained through the
interactions between an enzyme, telomerase, and several
accessory proteins. Researchers at The Wistar Institute have
defined the structure of one of these critical proteins in
yeast. Understanding how telomeres keep chromosomes - and by
extension, genomes - intact is an area of intense scientific
focus in the fields of both aging and cancer. In aging, the DNA
of telomeres eventually erodes faster than telomerase and its
accessory proteins can maintain it, and cells die. In cancer,
tumor cells hijack the process, subverting the natural method by
which our bodies limit cell growth; cancer cells, then, can grow
and multiply unchecked. One of these accessory proteins, Cdc13,
is integral to telomere maintenance and essential for cell
viability in yeast, according to researchers a