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Telomerase

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Encyclopedia of Cancer

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Definition

Telomerase (TE-LÓM-ER-ACE) is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme complex (a cellular reverse transcriptase) that maintains chromosome ends and has been referred to as a cellular immortalizing enzyme. Telomerase is composed of both RNA and proteins and uses its internal RNA component (complementary to the telomeric single-stranded overhang) as a template in order to synthesize telomeric DNA (TTAGGG)n directly onto the ends of chromosomes using the catalytic hTERT component. Telomerase is present in most fetal tissues, in normal adult male germ cells, in inflammatory cells, in proliferative cells of renewal tissues, and in most tumor cells. After adding six bases, the enzyme is thought to pause while it repositions (translocates) the template RNA for the synthesis of the next six-base pair repeat. This extension of the 3′ DNA template end in turn permits additional replication of the 5′ end of the lagging strand, thus compensating for the end replication problem.

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References

  • Bodnar AG, Ouellette M, Frolkis M et al (1998) Extension of lifespan by introduction of telomerase in normal human cells. Science 279:349–352

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See Also

  • (2012) End replication problem. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1221. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1867

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  • (2012) HTERT. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1752. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2843

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  • (2012) Immortalization. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1811. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2969

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  • (2012) Senescence. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3370. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5236

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  • (2012) Telomere. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3637. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5716

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Jerry W. Shay

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  1. Jerry W. Shay
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Correspondence to Jerry W. Shay .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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Shay, J.W. (2014). Telomerase. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_5715-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_5715-7

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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