1938 : Muller names the telomere

In the 1930’s, twenty years before Watson and Crick described the DNA’s double helix, Herman Muller was irradiating fruit flies at Woods Hole to produce mutants with deletions and inversions involving the ends of chromosomes. High energy rays produce DNA breaks, which is why UV exposure gives us skin cancer. Of note, he never found … Continue reading 1938 : Muller names the telomere