To show that these telomere defects were due to modification of telomeric DNA, O'Sullivan and his team took bacterial enzymes that function similarly to PARP1 and put them into human cells.

In normal cells, genomic lesions occur naturally during DNA replication when a cell divides, ... leading to disruption of telomere replication and premature telomere shortening.

Alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) cancers. ALT cancers achieve immortality by re-elongating telomeres in the G2 and M phases of the cell cycle via the break-induced replication (BIR) pathway.

Telomeres play an essential role in determining how many times a cell can divide. These repetitive sequences of DNA are located at the ends of chromosomes, structures that contain genetic information.

In normal cells, genomic lesions occur naturally during DNA replication as part of the cell cycle, ... telomere DNA-ADPr is highly dynamic and subject to stringent control by TARG1. ...

When a cell divides, a small section of the telomere of each chromosome is worn away. While most cells use the enzyme telomerase to mitigate this loss, about 10 – 15% of cancers use a different ...

The researchers also want to map the entire human telomere replication process, and they’re studying how CST–pol-α/primase terminates its activity once the DNA at telomeres is copied.

For the first time, scientists have shown that a major protein acts as a direct block in multiple stages of DNA replication, improving our understanding of how cancer develops. Researchers studied the ...

Wistar Institute have published the first detailed report on the structure and function of a crucial domain in the protein known as Cdc13, which sustains telomeres by clamping to DNA and ...