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One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is their ability to proliferate without limit. Because DNA replication is unidirectional, chromosomes shorten with every round of cell division. To avoid this, cells have telomeres at the ends of chromosomes and an RNA-protein telomerase complex that catalyzes the addition of TTAGGG repeats. Many cancer cells have high activity of this enzyme, thus ensuring immortality.
Recently, two groups of researchers identified recurrent mutations in the promoter region of the telomerase gene TERT. Promoters regulate the expression of genes, and, in this case, the mutations create new binding sites for ETS-family transcription factors. Huang and colleagues mined whole genome sequencing data and identified this mutati…