The telomere is a nucleoprotein complex located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. It is essential for maintaining the integrity of the genome. It is not a linear structure and, for much of the cell cycle, telomeric DNA is maintained in a loop structure, which serves to protect the vulnerable ends of chromosomes. Many of the key proteins in the telomere have been identified, although their interplay is still imperfectly understood and structural data are only available on a few. Telomeric DNA itself comprises simple guanine-rich repeats for most of its length, culminating in a short overhang of single-stranded sequence at the extreme 3′ ends. Here you can see a very recent cryoEM structure of human telomeric chromatin (tetranucleosome) revealing a tightly stacked columnar conformation (PDB code: 7VK9)
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #telomere ... #tetranucleosome ... #cryoem
Structure of the telomeric nucleosomes rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #telomere ... #tetranucleosome ... #cryoem
Structure of the telomeric nucleosomes rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
