Yeasts to know more about human cancer

2001/06/07 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Genetika
• Medikuntza

Each human cell has about 6 billion pairs of adn-bases. Being so much, it is easy for DNA to accumulate defects throughout the life of the cell. These errors can be caused by the environment or in DNA replication and for its detection all living beings have protein caregivers. Therefore, carer proteins repair damaged DNA and prevent possible pairing errors during recombination. Of course, if genes responsible for pairing errors have a mutation, the genome becomes unbalanced.

Human chromosome telomeres are seen by fluorescence

According to the work published by researchers Rizki and Lundblad in the journal Nature, the mutation of genes responsible for equalization errors allows yeast cells to survive without the enzyme telomerase.

This research can help understand human cancer. In fact, some types of cancer originate from gene mutation to remedy pairing defects. Errors seem to build up, so genes that prevent tumors or trigger cancer (oncogenes) are turned off.

Another mechanism that monitors the genome is the renewal of telomeres. In most eukaryotes this work depends on the enzyme called telomerase, but most cells not intended for human reproduction do not represent telomerase. Likewise, most human tumor cells restart telomerase, which allows cells to continue to live and reproduce.

Research on yeast, even without restarting telomerase, has explained that long-term cellular reproduction can be achieved, since there is another mechanism of telomere renewal. It seems that the system that solves pairing errors is related to the mechanism of telomerosis. In some cases, thanks to the mutation or loss of genes responsible for pairing errors, researchers have shown that cells without telomerosis reproduce for longer.

This research opens a new way to understand the origin of some cancers.