New Role For Critical DNA Repair Molecule In Immune System
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 10:01
in Biology & Nature
The human immune system is a brilliantly adaptable weapon against foreign invaders. But it all depends on the work of specialized cells called lymphocytes that have made a risky evolutionary gambit to mutate their own DNA. New research published in Nature shows for the first time that a molecule devoted to DNA repair plays a broader role in this genetic reshuffling -- called recombination -- than scientists had thought.