title: Telomeres, telomerase and chromosome stability.
abstract: Telomeres in most species consist of repeat units of a small number of nucleotides that together with secondary structures and associated proteins stabilize the linear chromosomal DNA molecule. Chromosomes lose a small amount of telomeric DNA after each cell replication. It has been proposed that when telomeres shorten below a critical length, a DNA damage response pathway is activated and induces cell cycle arrest. In cells such as stem cells that maintain a proliferative capacity, telomere length is maintained by the reverse transcriptase, telomerase. In addition, telomerase activity is present in 90% of primary human tumors, suggesting a role for telomerase in providing a proliferative capacity to cells, which is a requirement in progression to malignancy. Telomerase activity can be involved in chromosome healing, although telomerase-independent processes also appear to be capable of capping broken chromosome ends. This review describes the structure and maintenance of telomeres, the importance of a critical telomere length to cell proliferation and the telomeric status of broken chromosome ends produced during development or by spontaneous or induced DNA damages.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Preston
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D006801:Humans; D019098:Telomerase / Q000502:physiology*; D016615:Telomere / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D019098:Telomerase