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Telomeres are crucial for maintaining the integrity of the genome. Several alternative structures have been proposed for these caps, and understanding their biological significance is a matter of great interest. Probing of native telomeres now reveals that telomere end-binding proteins may control the formation of G-quadruplex DNA in vivo.
How are individual transmembrane helices in polytopic membrane proteins delivered from the Sec translocon into the lipid bilayer? A new study on the aquaporin-4 water channel shows that they move out of the translocon in succession but may linger nearby for an extended period of time.