title: Blunt-ended telomeres: an alternative ending to the replication and end protection stories.
abstract: Telomeres ensure the complete replication of genetic material while simultaneously distinguishing the chromosome terminus from a double-strand break. A prevailing theme in telomere biology is that the two chromosome ends are symmetrical. Both terminate in a single-strand 3' extension, and the 3' extension is crucial for telomere end protection. In this issue of Genes & Development, Kazda and colleagues (pp. 1703-1713) challenge this paradigm using a series of elegant biochemical and genetic assays to demonstrate that half of the chromosomes in flowering plants are blunt-ended. This discovery reveals unanticipated complexity in telomeric DNA processing and a novel mode of chromosome end protection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew D L
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Dorothy E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Shippen
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000378:metabolism*; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000378:metabolism*; D016615:Telomere / Q000378:metabolism*