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Structural biology

A molecular propeller

Telomeres are protein–DNA structures protecting the ends of chromosomes. The crystal structure of a four-stranded stretch of human telomere DNA, bound to K+ ions, has implications for the design of anticancer drugs.

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Figure 1: Basics of the quadruplex topology of human telomeric repeat sequences.
Figure 2: Topology of the quadruplex formed by the four-repeat TTAGGG human telomere DNA sequence d[AG3(T2AG3)3].

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Correspondence to Dinshaw J. Patel.

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Patel, D. A molecular propeller. Nature 417, 807–808 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/417807a

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