title: Evolutionary perspectives of telomerase RNA structure and function.
abstract: Telomerase is the eukaryotic solution to the 'end-replication problem' of linear chromosomes by synthesising the highly repetitive DNA constituent of telomeres, the nucleoprotein cap that protects chromosome termini. Functioning as a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) enzyme, telomerase is minimally composed of the highly conserved catalytic telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and essential telomerase RNA (TR) component. Beyond merely providing the template for telomeric DNA synthesis, TR is an innate telomerase component and directly facilitates enzymatic function. TR accomplishes this by having evolved structural elements for stable assembly with the TERT protein and the regulation of the telomerase catalytic cycle. Despite its prominence and prevalence, TR has profoundly diverged in length, sequence, and biogenesis pathway among distinct evolutionary lineages. This diversity has generated numerous structural and mechanistic solutions for ensuring proper RNP formation and high fidelity telomeric DNA synthesis. Telomerase provides unique insights into RNA and protein coevolution within RNP enzymes.
authors.affiliation: a School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University , Tempe , AZ , USA.
authors.forename: Joshua D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Podlevsky
authors.affiliation: a School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University , Tempe , AZ , USA.
authors.forename: Julian J-L
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004261:DNA Replication; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D006801:Humans; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011485:Protein Binding; D054730:Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012261:Ribonucleoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D019098:Telomerase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013698:Templates, Genetic
chemical_list: D012261:Ribonucleoproteins; C422952:telomerase RNA; D012313:RNA; D019098:Telomerase
keywords: DNA replication; end-replication problem; evolution; polymerase; ribonucleoprotein; telomerase; telomere