Telomeres thrown for a loop.
A remarkable paper from the de Lange lab (Wang et al., 2004) in a recent issue of Cell reveals that homologous recombination can result in the abrupt shortening of telomeres in a process that appears to involve reciprocal crossing over within the t-loop structure that protects chromosome ends.
Haber
James E
JE
Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA.
D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002842:Chromatids / Q000378:metabolism; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic; D045566:DNA, Cruciform / Q000378:metabolism; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008954:Models, Biological; D045522:Recombinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D016615:Telomere / Q000737:chemistry*; D035341:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 2 / Q000378:metabolism
D045566:DNA, Cruciform; D045522:Recombinases; D035341:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 2