A Longer Ending

DNA has many ways of protecting itself. Its end sections, called telomeres, are only a buffer to stop the essential middle being worn away. Telomeres start long in embryos and shorten as you age, causing some symptoms of ageing. Scientists have developed mice with hyper-long telomeres by taking early embryo cells – the only cell type that can lengthen their telomeres – and allowing them to divide in a dish for a while before letting them develop into embryos. The resulting mice had cells with a mix of telomeres: the top image shows a magnified section of intestine with cells containing hyper-long telomeres in green. Below is a computer-generated map of the intestinal cells with the very longest telomeres highlighted in orange. Parts of the mice containing cells with hyper-long telomeres healed wounds faster. Lengthening telomeres was already possible, but previous methods caused extra risk to the mice, which this technique avoids.

Written by Esther Redhouse White

Esther Redhouse White

Writer

A recent Biochemistry graduate from York, Esther has worked on bacterial killing proteins and genetic switches in worms. In her spare time she likes visiting museums full of skeletons.

• Image from work by Elisa Varela and colleagues
• Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, June 2016