When chromosomes duplicate by DNA replication, each duplicated chromosome is referred to as a chromatid. This is a diagram of a replicated chromosome. These identical copies of the DNA molecule are held together at the centromere region. Some of the microtubules of a dividing cell connect to the replicated chromatids at this region. Telomeres are of increasing interest in the biotech community. These telomeres are specific nucleotide sequences that don't contain coding DNA sequences but contain multiple repeats of short nucleoide sequences. Six bases might be repeated 100 to 1000 times in these telomeric regions. These regions seem to protect our actual coding genes from being eroded through time. It is of interest that telomeres have been implicated as one of the factors in the life span of an organism or tissue type. Certainly, much work is continuing with telomeres in aging and cancer studies.

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