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The steady shortening of telomeres with each replication in somatic (body) cells may have a role in senescence [19] and in the prevention of cancer. [ 20 ] [ 21 ] This is because the telomeres act as a sort of time-delay "fuse", eventually running out after a certain number of cell divisions and resulting in the eventual loss of vital genetic ...
Almost all cancer cells have shortened telomeres. [20] This may seem counter-intuitive, as short telomeres should activate the ATR/ATM DNA damage checkpoint and thereby prevent division. Resolving the question of why cancer cells have short telomeres led to the development of a two-stage model for how cancer cells subvert telomeric regulation ...
The ability to maintain functional telomeres may be one mechanism that allows cancer cells to grow in vitro for decades. [54] Telomerase activity is necessary to preserve many cancer types and is inactive in somatic cells, creating the possibility that telomerase inhibition could selectively repress cancer cell growth with minimal side effects ...
Telomeres at the end of a chromosome. The relationship between telomeres and longevity and changing the length of telomeres is one of the new fields of research on increasing human lifespan and even human immortality. [1] [2] Telomeres are sequences at the ends of chromosomes that shorten with each cell division and determine the lifespan of ...
Shelterin (also called telosome) is a protein complex known to protect telomeres in many eukaryotes from DNA repair mechanisms, as well as to regulate telomerase activity. In mammals and other vertebrates, telomeric DNA consists of repeating double-stranded 5'-TTAGGG-3' (G-strand) sequences (2-15 kilobases in humans) along with the 3'-AATCCC-5' (C-strand) complement, ending with a 50-400 ...
Telomere: Used to maintain chromosomal integrity by capping off the ends of the linear chromosomes. This region is a microsatellite , but its function is more specific than a simple tandem repeat. Throughout the eukaryotic kingdom, the overall structure of chromosome ends is conserved and is characterized by the telomeric tract - a series of ...
By contrast, most eukaryotes have linear DNA requiring elaborate mechanisms to maintain the stability of the telomeres and replicate the DNA. However, a circular chromosome has the disadvantage that after replication, the two progeny circular chromosomes can remain interlinked or tangled, and they must be extricated so that each cell inherits ...
The end replication problem is handled in eukaryotic cells by telomere regions and telomerase. Telomeres extend the 3' end of the parental chromosome beyond the 5' end of the daughter strand. This single-stranded DNA structure can act as an origin of replication that recruits telomerase.