Lindau Nobel Meeting–Stressed Mind, Stressed DNA

It was an accidental mutation of the Tetrahymena thermophila (left), a pond organism, during a lab experiment that revealed that the enzyme telomerase keeps the protective caps on the end of chromosomes long. Speaking at the 61st Meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau, Elisabeth Blackburn compared the caps, called telomeres , to the tips on the end of a shoelace that prevent it from fraying. Telomeres protect DNA during cell division

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Lindau Nobel Meeting–Stressed Mind, Stressed DNA