Is this anything to do with telomere shortenting with age: a thread
that developed on this newsgroup a while back? The following is a copy
of a posting from Dr Baranidharan, of Bsngalore
Read Burnside,E. (1984) Ann.Rev.BioChem Vol.53, p163.
(there is also a review article in Scientific American on this
and I will try to fish it out if someone is interested)
for the first discussion on telomeric repeats. The Telomere (TTAGGG)n
repeats at both ends of chromosomes in all the vertebrates. The
structure is antiparallel quadruplet and binds to an enzyme
called 'telomerase' which is the first enzyme to be discovered
that contains an RNA that is essential for its activity (this
threw out the protein-enzyme hypothesis). This enzyme is found
mostly in the germ cells (where spermatozoa production takes place)
and NOT in somatic cells. It is also known that the TTAGGG repeats
disable the shortening of chromosomes. However the cell ageing
and deletions in the (TTAGGG)n form a chicken-and-egg problem.
Others who are working on this problem include A.Rich (MIT).
S.Baranidharan
Molecular Biophysics Unit
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012 India.
barani at mbu.iisc.ernet.in
Jim Cummins
School of Veterinary Studies
Murdoch University
Western Australia 6150 Tel +61-9-360 2668 Fax +61-9-310 4144
For every complex problem there's a simple solution. And it's wrong!
