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Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon

Bacteria and viruses possess circular DNA, whereas eukaryotes with typically very large DNA molecules have had to evolve into linear chromosomes to circumvent the problem of supercoiling circular DNA of that size. Consequently, such organisms possess telomeres to cap chromosome ends. Telomeres are e...

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Autores principales: Venkatesan, Shriram, Khaw, Aik Kia, Hande, Manoor Prakash
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492019/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28629193
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells6020015
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author Venkatesan, Shriram
Khaw, Aik Kia
Hande, Manoor Prakash
author_facet Venkatesan, Shriram
Khaw, Aik Kia
Hande, Manoor Prakash
author_sort Venkatesan, Shriram
collection PubMed
description Bacteria and viruses possess circular DNA, whereas eukaryotes with typically very large DNA molecules have had to evolve into linear chromosomes to circumvent the problem of supercoiling circular DNA of that size. Consequently, such organisms possess telomeres to cap chromosome ends. Telomeres are essentially tandem repeats of any DNA sequence that are present at the ends of chromosomes. Their biology has been an enigmatic one, involving various molecules interacting dynamically in an evolutionarily well-trimmed fashion. Telomeres range from canonical hexameric repeats in most eukaryotes to unimaginably random retrotransposons, which attach to chromosome ends and reverse-transcribe to DNA in some plants and insects. Telomeres invariably associate with specialised protein complexes that envelop it, also regulating access of the ends to legitimate enzymes involved in telomere metabolism. They also transcribe into repetitive RNA which also seems to be playing significant roles in telomere maintenance. Telomeres thus form the intersection of DNA, protein, and RNA molecules acting in concert to maintain chromosome integrity. Telomere biology is emerging to appear ever more complex than previously envisaged, with the continual discovery of more molecules and interplays at the telomeres. This review also includes a section dedicated to the history of telomere biology, and intends to target the scientific audience new to the field by rendering an understanding of the phenomenon of chromosome end protection at large, with more emphasis on the biology of human telomeres. The review provides an update on the field and mentions the questions that need to be addressed.
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spelling pubmed-54920192017-07-03 Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon Venkatesan, Shriram Khaw, Aik Kia Hande, Manoor Prakash Cells Review Bacteria and viruses possess circular DNA, whereas eukaryotes with typically very large DNA molecules have had to evolve into linear chromosomes to circumvent the problem of supercoiling circular DNA of that size. Consequently, such organisms possess telomeres to cap chromosome ends. Telomeres are essentially tandem repeats of any DNA sequence that are present at the ends of chromosomes. Their biology has been an enigmatic one, involving various molecules interacting dynamically in an evolutionarily well-trimmed fashion. Telomeres range from canonical hexameric repeats in most eukaryotes to unimaginably random retrotransposons, which attach to chromosome ends and reverse-transcribe to DNA in some plants and insects. Telomeres invariably associate with specialised protein complexes that envelop it, also regulating access of the ends to legitimate enzymes involved in telomere metabolism. They also transcribe into repetitive RNA which also seems to be playing significant roles in telomere maintenance. Telomeres thus form the intersection of DNA, protein, and RNA molecules acting in concert to maintain chromosome integrity. Telomere biology is emerging to appear ever more complex than previously envisaged, with the continual discovery of more molecules and interplays at the telomeres. This review also includes a section dedicated to the history of telomere biology, and intends to target the scientific audience new to the field by rendering an understanding of the phenomenon of chromosome end protection at large, with more emphasis on the biology of human telomeres. The review provides an update on the field and mentions the questions that need to be addressed. MDPI 2017-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC5492019/ /pubmed/28629193 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells6020015 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Venkatesan, Shriram
Khaw, Aik Kia
Hande, Manoor Prakash
Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon
title Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon
title_full Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon
title_fullStr Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon
title_full_unstemmed Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon
title_short Telomere Biology—Insights into an Intriguing Phenomenon
title_sort telomere biology—insights into an intriguing phenomenon
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492019/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28629193
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells6020015
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