Telomeres and telomerase: the path from maize, Tetrahymena and yeast to human cancer and aging
EH Blackburn, CW Greider, JW Szostak - Nature medicine, 2006 - nature.com
EH Blackburn, CW Greider, JW Szostak
Nature medicine, 2006•nature.comScientific discoveries are each individual and occur by their own unique path. However,
there are key ingredients that set the stage for them. Many of these ingredients were
important in the discovery of telomerase: talking with scientists from different fields, paying
attention to unusual findings and taking the risks of doing crazy experiments. We will
describe how a combination of these ingredients and productive collaborations led us to
postulate and discover telomerase. The earliest functional description of telomeres was by …
there are key ingredients that set the stage for them. Many of these ingredients were
important in the discovery of telomerase: talking with scientists from different fields, paying
attention to unusual findings and taking the risks of doing crazy experiments. We will
describe how a combination of these ingredients and productive collaborations led us to
postulate and discover telomerase. The earliest functional description of telomeres was by …
Scientific discoveries are each individual and occur by their own unique path. However, there are key ingredients that set the stage for them. Many of these ingredients were important in the discovery of telomerase: talking with scientists from different fields, paying attention to unusual findings and taking the risks of doing crazy experiments. We will describe how a combination of these ingredients and productive collaborations led us to postulate and discover telomerase.
The earliest functional description of telomeres was by geneticist Hermann Muller when he used X-rays to fragment chromosomes. Muller, working with fruit flies, and Barbara McClintock, working with maize, converged on the same conclusion around the same time: that the natural ends of chromosomes are different from those created at the site of a chromosomal break. The natural ends were somehow protected from the frequent rearrangements that occur at broken ends. As McClintock wrote in a 1931
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