端粒和端粒酶的发现历程

Discovery of telomere and telomerase

端粒是染色体末端的特殊结构,它由简单重复的DNA序列和与之结合的蛋白质构成,保护染色体末端不被降解或融合,并使染色体能够完全复制。端粒酶是特殊的逆转录酶,它利用自身的RNA亚基作为模板复制出端粒DNA。端粒和端粒酶的研究进程中贯穿着"发现现象/问题"-"提出概念/模型"-"实验验证"的思路,整个过程就像相继解开一个个谜团一样有趣。因此它是一个很好的科学问题推演的案例。本文以时间为顺序进行整理,重现了这一发现历程。

Telomere is a specialized chromosome end, consisting of repetitive DNA and its binding proteins. Telomere protects chromosome termini from degradation and reciprocal fusion, and enables full replication of chromosome. Telomerase is a specialized reverse transcriptase, utilizing its own RNA subunit as the template to replicate telomere DNA. The discovery process of telomere and telomerase is like solving a series of puzzles, from ＂phenomena/question＂ to ＂concept/model＂ to ＂experimental test of hypothesis＂. Thus, it is a beautiful example of how scientific questions are logically deduced. This review focuses on the history of these heroic discoveries.