Description
Product Characteristics:
Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme essential for the replication of chromosome termini in most eukaryotes. It elongates telomeres. It is a reverse transcriptase that adds simple sequence repeats to chromosome ends by copying a template sequence within the RNA component of the enzyme. Telomerase are large DNA-protein complexes with telomerase expression being the subject of recent research due to its link to cell immortalization. Recent evidence has shown that MYC upregulates the catalytic subunit of telomerase, TERT, and that TERT cooperates with HPV E7 in cell immortalization. Ever since the discovery that telomeres are short in cancer cells and telomerase is activated in immortal cells, telomerase has been associated with oncogenes. During the past year, major advances have been made in understanding the link between telomerase expression and cell immortality. Studies of yeast telomeres have revealed an unexpected role for the non-homologous end-joining machinery in telomere maintenance and have provided the first definitive evidence that telomeres play a critical role in meiosis. Identification of new telomere proteins has led to a better understanding of vertebrate telomere structure and function.
Subcellular location: Nucleus
Synonyms: p-TERTSer1125, TERTphospho S1125, EST2, hEST2, TCS1, Telomerase associated protein 2, Telomerase Catalytic Subunit, Telomere Reverse Transcriptase, TERT, TP2, TRT.
Target Information: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein polymerase that maintains telomere ends by addition of the telomere repeat TTAGGG. The enzyme consists of a protein component with reverse transcriptase activity, encoded by this gene, and an RNA component which serves as a template for the telomere repeat. Telomerase expression plays a role in cellular senescence, as it is normally repressed in postnatal somatic cells resulting in progressive shortening of telomeres. Deregulation of telomerase expression in somatic cells may be involved in oncogenesis. Studies in mouse suggest that telomerase also participates in chromosomal repair, since de novo synthesis of telomere repeats may occur at double-stranded breaks. Alternatively spliced variants encoding different isoforms of telomerase reverse transcriptase have been identified\, the full-length sequence of some variants has not been determined. Alternative splicing at this locus is thought to be one mechanism of regulation of telomerase activity. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]