scispace - formally typeset
Journal ArticleDOI

Structure and function of telomeres

Elizabeth H. Blackburn
- 18 Apr 1991 - 
- Vol. 350, Iss: 6319, pp 569-573
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The DNA of telomeres—the terminal DNA-protein complexes of chromosomes—differs notably from other DNA sequences in both structure and function, and has been shown to be essential for telomere maintenance and long-term viability.
Abstract
The DNA of telomeres--the terminal DNA-protein complexes of chromosomes--differs notably from other DNA sequences in both structure and function. Recent work has highlighted its remarkable mode of synthesis by the ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase, telomerase, as well as its ability to form unusual structures in vitro. Moreover, telomere synthesis by telomerase has been shown to be essential for telomere maintenance and long-term viability.

read more

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cells and cancer

TL;DR: A highly sensitive assay for measuring telomerase activity was developed in this paper, which showed that telomerases appear to be stringently repressed in normal human somatic tissues but reactivated in cancer, where immortal cells are likely required to maintain tumor growth.
Journal ArticleDOI

Aging, Cellular Senescence, and Cancer

TL;DR: The idea that, despite seemingly opposite characteristics, the degenerative and hyperplastic pathologies of aging are at least partly linked by a common biological phenomenon: a cellular stress response known as cellular senescence is discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Telomere Shortening and Tumor Formation by Mouse Cells Lacking Telomerase RNA

TL;DR: Results indicate that telomerase is essential for telomere length maintenance but is not required for establishment of cell lines, oncogenic transformation, or tumor formation in mice.

Telomere shortening associated withchromosome instability isarrested inimmortal cells whichexpress telomerase activity

TL;DR: The results suggest that chromosomes with short (TTAGGG)n tracts are recombinogenic, critically shortened telomeres may be incompatible with cell proliferation and stabilization of telomere length by telomerase may be required for immortalization.
Journal ArticleDOI

Telomere shortening associated with chromosome instability is arrested in immortal cells which express telomerase activity.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors measured telomere length, telomerase activity and chromosome rearrangements in human cells before and after transformation with SV40 or Ad5 and found that telomeres shortened by approximately 65 bp/generation during the lifespan of the cultures.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Telomeres shorten during ageing of human fibroblasts.

TL;DR: The amount and length of telomeric DNA in human fibroblasts does in fact decrease as a function of serial passage during ageing in vitro and possibly in vivo.
Journal ArticleDOI

Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in tetrahymena extracts

TL;DR: It is proposed that the novel telomere terminal transferase is involved in the addition of telomeric repeats necessary for the replication of chromosome ends in eukaryotes.
Journal ArticleDOI

A highly conserved repetitive DNA sequence, (TTAGGG)n, present at the telomeres of human chromosomes.

TL;DR: A highly conserved repetitive DNA sequence, (TTAGGG)n, has been isolated from a human recombinant repetitive DNA library and its similarity to functional telomeres isolated from lower eukaryotes suggest that this sequence is a functional human telomere.
Journal ArticleDOI

Structure and function of telomeres

TL;DR: The history and present situation of Spanish language, culture, literature, cuisine, tourism, and more are explored in more detail in this booklet.
Journal ArticleDOI

A theory of marginotomy: The incomplete copying of template margin in enzymic synthesis of polynucleotides and biological significance of the phenomenon

TL;DR: Marginotomy is responsible for the loss with age of various cell clones of the body, including some endocrine cell clones, and may be the primary cause of various disorders of age of the ageing of multicellular organisms.
Related Papers (5)