British researchers have at last discovered the answer to one of life's biggest mysteries: how chromosomes acquire their distinctive X form.
It has been found that the shugosin protein "locks" the chromosomes into X forms. Shugosins are described as conserved proteins that have evolved with specialised roles in ensuring the stability of particular chromosomes during cell division.
But how they are X-shaped has always been a mystery. The precise cause of the chromosomes' X shape was unknown till now, even though biology students around the world learn that chromosomes acquire their shape during cell division.
The genetic makeup of an organism is stored in DNA molecules called chromosomes, which were first identified in the late 1800s.
Without exception, every chromosome undergoes or acquires an X shape before the cells of an organism divide.
This study was led by Dr. Benjamin Rowland, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and Professor Daniel Panne, of the University of Leicester. Their research is been published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
Dr. Rowland reportedly said: "A chromosome actually consists of two identical long DNA threads that at first are connected along their entire length. A host of ring-shaped cohesin molecules holds the two threads together. When a cell is about to divide, the cohesin rings open and the arms of the DNA come apart."
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