Most human carcinomas exhibit telomere abnormalities early in the carcinogenesis process [1–3] suggesting that crisis caused by telomere shortening may be a necessary event leading to human carcinomas [4]. Epidemiological records of the age at which each patient in a population develops carcinoma are known as age-incidence data; these provide a quantitative measure of human tumor initiation and...

Aberrantly short telomeres result in decreased longevity in both humans and mice with defective telomere maintenance. Normal populations of humans and mice present high interindividual variation in telomere length, but it is unknown whether this is associated with their lifespan potential. To address this issue, we performed a longitudinal telomere length study along the lifespan of wild-type a...

We describe two roles for the Rad50 protein in telomere maintenance and the protection of chromosome ends. Using fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and fibre-FISH analyses, we show that absence of AtRad50 protein leads to rapid shortening of a subpopulation of chromosome ends and subsequently chromosome-end fusions lacking telomeric repeats. In the absence of telomerase, mutation of atra...

introduction: telomeres are repetitive sequences of ttaggg section that find at two ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and they shield chromosome ends. telomere shortening in patients with myocardial infarction has been reported. shelterin complex's role is essential in telomere length regulation. telomeric repeat binding factors 1 and 2 (trf1 and trf2) are the most important sheltrein complex...

The length of telomeres, the protective caps of chromosomes, is increasingly used as a biomarker of individual health state because it has been shown to predict chances of survival in a range of endothermic species including humans. Oxidative stress is presumed to be a major cause of telomere shortening, but most evidence to date comes from in vitro cultured cells. The importance of oxidative s...

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae at least five genes, EST1, EST2, EST3, TLC1 and CDC13, are required for telomerase activity in vivo. The telomerase catalytic subunit Est2p and telomerase RNA subunit Tlc1 constitute the telomerase core enzyme. Est1p and Est3p are the other subunits of telomerase holoenzyme. In order to dissect the function of Est3p in telomere replication, we over-expressed and puri...

Loss of function of dyskerin (DKC1), NOP10 and TIN2 are responsible for different inheritance patterns of Dyskeratosis congenita (DC; ORPHA1775). They are key components of telomerase (DKC1 and NOP10) and shelterin (TIN2), and play an important role in telomere homeostasis. They participate in several fundamental cellular processes by contributing to Dyskeratosis congenita through mechanisms th...

In human cancer cells with telomeres that have been over-lengthened by exogenous telomerase activity, telomere shortening can occur by a process that generates circles of double-stranded telomeric DNA (t-circles). Here, we demonstrate that this telomeretrimming process occurs in cells of the male germline and in normal lymphocytes following mitogen-stimulated upregulation of telomerase activity...