from the article:
"
The study, published December 17 in Cell, describes the cellular events leading up to the phenomenon dubbed chromothripsis. However, these insights into the origins of chromothripsis came from an investigation into another molecular event that can lead to cancer, known as telomere crisis.
Telomere crisis results when the protective caps at the end of chromosomes, known as telomeres, become shortened as a result of cell divisions. With less DNA present in telomeres, it becomes harder to prevent separate chromosomes from attaching to each other. If those abnormal cells survive and continue to divide, they can give rise to cancer.
The researchers recreated telomere crisis in human cells by blocking the protein complex that prevents telomeres from fusing and disabling some of the molecular pathways that protect cells from turning cancerous. First author John Maciejowski, a postdoc in de Lange's lab, filmed the events that followed."
"Once TREX1 causes the chromatin bridge to disintegrate, the two daughter cells spring away from each other. Each carries some of the bridge's DNA fragments, which the cells then try to put back together. Some cells die from the trauma of this event, but others survive and divide, spreading the damaged DNA, which may contain shuffled portions, or have lost some of the genes that suppress cancer. In other words, this chain of events creates chromothripsis."
http://www.medicalne...ases/304273.php
http://www.cell.com/...8674(15)01573-1
Edited by alc, 18 December 2015 - 04:21 PM.
