A new protein that helps cells avoid cell death

Source: Science Daily

Long time no posts… I was kinda busy with my project work. So I’m actually trying to insert a few posts now to keep the blog active.

Ok…here we go… Researchers have found out a new protein called Dpo4 which helps a cell to avoid cell death allowing it to survive. But what happens here is this phenomenon could lead to cancer. Let me explain some basic concepts before proceeding further.

We know very well that DNA replication is a very important step in the process of cell division. Basically, the DNA of humans are double stranded. I’ll briefly explain you how DNA replication occurs.

The first thing that you should know is that the two strands of DNA are connected to each other by base pairs. There are four types of bases namely Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine. Adenine binds only with thymine and Guanine binds only with Cytosine.

The first step is the splitting of DNA into two single strands. Then the replication step starts. Some enzymes are present which see what base is present in the single strand and place corresponding bases opposite to it and construct the other strand. So basically, the new DNA formed will have an old strand and a newly synthesised strand.

What happens now? Suppose because of some mutation, a base is missing in the strand. Normally, during such times, the repair work gets done and replication proceeds. In cases, where the mutation accumulates a lot, the cell commits suicide (Cell death).

This protein Dpo4 instead of allowing the cell to commit suicide, adds a base in front of the empty space of the old strand thus allowing the cell to bypass the damage and proceed with the replication process. When such errors are left unnoticed over a period of time, more mutations and more errors accumulate and the cell turns cancerous.

This is one of the latest interesting news that I read that I wanted to share it with you. Some more will follow pretty soon. Keep reading.