Cells have to protect themselves: against damage in their genetic material for one thing, but also against attack from the outside, by viruses for example. They do this by using different mechanisms: special proteins search out and detect defects in the cell's own DNA, while the immune system takes action against intruders. Scientists from Technische Universität München and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München have now shown that the two protective mechanisms are linked by a shared protein.
↧