Researchers at the IMP Vienna discover that cohesin
stabilizes DNA. Jan-Michael Peters and his team at the Research Institute of
Molecular Pathology (IMP) found that the structure of Chromosomes is supported
by a kind of molecular skeleton, made of cohesin. Their discovery is published
in the forthcoming issue of the journal NATURE.
Every single cell in the human body contains an entire copy
of the genetic blueprint, the DNA. Its total length is about 3.5 meters and all
of it has to fit into the cell’s nucleus, just one-hundredth of a millimeter in
diameter. Blown up in proportion, this would equal the task of squeezing a
150km long string into a soccer ball. Just how the cell manages to wrap up its
DNA so tightly is still poorly understood.