Telomeres and radiation-induced chromosome breakage

Chromosome breakage and repair.

FROM time to time one of my colleagues working at a medical school commiserates with me because I spend 40 hr a year lecturing to undergraduates. I always reply that teaching has compelled me to learn a lot of material that I would not have known about had I taught only my specialized subject. These forays into the ‘‘beyond’’ were instrumental in moving my research in new directions. Three arti...

Chromosome breakage and ultrasound.

Human lymphocyte cultures were examined for chromosome damage after exposure to ultrasound. Control and treated slides were scored "blind" and showed no evidence of damage due to ultrasound. Neither was there evidence of chromosome damage in blood cultures from six infants whose mothers had ultrasound during pregnancy when compared with that from six infants whose mothers had not. Our results s...

Telomeres, chromosome instability and cancer

Telomeres are composed of repetitive G-rich sequence and an abundance of associated proteins that together form a dynamic cap that protects chromosome ends and allows them to be distinguished from deleterious DSBs. Telomere-associated proteins also function to regulate telomerase, the ribonucleoprtotein responsible for addition of the species-specific terminal repeat sequence. Loss of telomere ...

In Vitro Chromosome Breakage Induced by Arabinosyladenine in Human Leukocytes.

The Fragile Breakage versus Random Breakage Models of Chromosome Evolution

For many years, studies of chromosome evolution were dominated by the random breakage theory, which implies that there are no rearrangement hot spots in the human genome. In 2003, Pevzner and Tesler argued against the random breakage model and proposed an alternative "fragile breakage" model of chromosome evolution. In 2004, Sankoff and Trinh argued against the fragile breakage model and raised...