Genetics: 'Origins code' for DNA
- Date:
- November 12, 2015
- Source:
- CNRS
- Summary:
- The source of any life involves the duplication (or replication) of DNA, a mechanism that is essential to cell division. A team of biologists has recently performed the most exhaustive analysis to date of thousands of sites (called origins) where this replication of the genome is initiated in multicellular organisms.
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The source of any life involves the duplication (or replication) of DNA, a mechanism that is essential to cell division. A team of biologists has recently performed the most exhaustive analysis to date of thousands of sites (called origins) where this replication of the genome is initiated in multicellular organisms.
They were able to distinguish three principal categories, reflecting the adaptive capacities of cells. Knowledge of this "origins code" should make it possible to determine any alterations in the event of cancer, or even to develop new tools for gene therapy.
These findings, which mainly result from a collaboration between molecular biologists at the Institut de Génétique Humaine (CNRS) and bioinformatics specialists in the Laboratoire Technologie Avancée pour le Génome et la Clinique (TAGC, Inserm/Aix-Marseille Université), are published on 11 November 2015 in Genome Research.
Journal Reference:
- C. Cayrou, B. Ballester, I. Peiffer, R. Fenouil, P. Coulombe, J.-C. Andrau, J. van Helden, M. Mechali. The chromatin environment shapes DNA replication origin organization and defines origin classes. Genome Research, 2015; DOI: 10.1101/gr.192799.115
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