title: Short telomeres flirt with stem cell commitment.
abstract: High expression of telomerase in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is important for their maintenance, but whether telomere length affects lineage commitment is unknown. In this issue of Cell stem cell, Pucci et al. (2013) reveal that ESCs with short telomeres exhibit unstable differentiation by inducing altered DNA methylation.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biogenesis Research, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA. allsopp@hawaii.edu
authors.forename: Rich
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Allsopp