Generation Counter
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Cell generation counter. | Cell generation counter. | ||
=Principle= | =Principle= | ||
| - | A counter somehow triggered by cell division that allows the experimentator to | + | A counter somehow triggered by cell division that allows the experimentator to track the number of generations. |
| + | |||
=The telomere approach= | =The telomere approach= | ||
In somatic mamalian cells, the telomeres cannot be copied in their full length by the polymerases, because they copy in one direction and so they would need to start *after* the end to copy the ends. That is somewhat the worse explanation you will ever read about this phenomenon, so googling a bit about "telomere" and say, "aging", won't harm you at this point. | In somatic mamalian cells, the telomeres cannot be copied in their full length by the polymerases, because they copy in one direction and so they would need to start *after* the end to copy the ends. That is somewhat the worse explanation you will ever read about this phenomenon, so googling a bit about "telomere" and say, "aging", won't harm you at this point. | ||
Revision as of 10:53, 4 August 2005
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Contents |
Intro
Cell generation counter.
Principle
A counter somehow triggered by cell division that allows the experimentator to track the number of generations.
The telomere approach
In somatic mamalian cells, the telomeres cannot be copied in their full length by the polymerases, because they copy in one direction and so they would need to start *after* the end to copy the ends. That is somewhat the worse explanation you will ever read about this phenomenon, so googling a bit about "telomere" and say, "aging", won't harm you at this point. Is there a way to use this trick in bacteria? The problem is far from trivial since
- bacteria usually digest linear DNA
- it is difficult to insure that that DNA gets only replicated once per generation (as plasmid tend to have asynchronous replication cycles?!?)
Maybe the idea should be implemented in yeast?
Discussion
>> for comments, questions and temporary remarks go to the Talk:Generation_Counter
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