A new look at the challenging world of tandem repeats.
Recent research has shown a correlation between some genetic diseases and genomic sequences tandemly repeated a variable and excessive number of times. The excessive number of tandem repeats is usually caused by a progressive expansion, generally considered as purely harmful. We put forward a number of hypotheses: the main one is that the number of repeats has normally a specific significance, and that there exist purposive mechanisms having as a primary function the management of tandem repeats length; such a function is generally useful and only rarely may it become harmful, because of some malfunctioning. These hypotheses are suggested by plausibility arguments, and are supported by a number of recent experimental results. They could provide a simple and unifying explanation of many pathological and non-pathological phenomena replacing many ad hoc assumptions. We finally propose to call the study of the above tandem repeat managing mechanisms 'dynamical genetics'.
De Fonzo
V
V
EuroBioPark c/o Parco Scientifico, Università di Roma 'Tor Vergata', Rome, Italy.
Bersani
E
E
Aluffi-Pentini
F
F
Parisi
V
V
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics; D017209:Apoptosis; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000235:genetics*; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D006801:Humans; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology; D019098:Telomerase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D019098:Telomerase