Telomerase and Telomeres in Aging and Cancer

Abstract

The structure and integrity of telomeres are essential for genome stabi lity. Telomere deregulation can lead to cell death, cell senescence or abnormal cell proliferation. The maintenance oftelomere repeats in most eukaryotic organisms require telomerase, which consists of a reverse transcriptase (RT) and an RNA template that dictate the synthesis of the G-rich trand of telomere repeats. Structurally, telomerase reverse transcriptases (TERT) contain unique and variable N- and C- terminal extensions that flank a central RT- like domain.