trt-1 is the Caenorhabditis elegans catalytic subunit of telomerase.
Mutants of trt-1, the Caenorhabditis elegans telomerase reverse transcriptase, reproduce normally for several generations but eventually become sterile as a consequence of telomere erosion and end-to-end chromosome fusions. Telomere erosion and uncapping do not cause an increase in apoptosis in the germlines of trt-1 mutants. Instead, late-generation trt-1 mutants display chromosome segregation defects that are likely to be the direct cause of sterility. trt-1 functions in the same telomere replication pathway as mrt-2, a component of the Rad9/Rad1/Hus1 (9-1-1) proliferating cell nuclear antigen-like sliding clamp. Thus, the 9-1-1 complex may be required for telomerase to act at chromosome ends in C. elegans. Although telomere erosion limits replicative life span in human somatic cells, neither trt-1 nor telomere shortening affects postmitotic aging in C. elegans. These findings illustrate effects of telomere dysfunction in C. elegans mutants lacking the catalytic subunit of telomerase, trt-1.
Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Bettina
B
Meier
Iuval
I
Clejan
Yan
Y
Liu
Mia
M
Lowden
Anton
A
Gartner
Jonathan
J
Hodgkin
Shawn
S
Ahmed
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D002384:Catalysis; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D004261:DNA Replication; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D018095:Germ-Line Mutation; D008938:Mitosis; D009154:Mutation; D019098:Telomerase / Q000235:genetics*; D016615:Telomere / Q000648:ultrastructure*
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D019098:Telomerase