What is the role of the telomerase RNA in telomere lengthening?

Function. Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein polymerase that maintains telomere ends by addition of the telomere repeat TTAGGG. The enzyme consists of a protein component (TERT) with reverse transcriptase activity, and an RNA component, encoded by this gene, that serves as a template for the telomere repeat.

What is the mechanism of action of telomerase?

Telomerase is the essential reverse transcriptase required for linear chromosome maintenance in most eukaryotes. Telomerase supplements the tandem array of simple-sequence repeats at chromosome ends to compensate for the DNA erosion inherent in genome replication.

What regulates telomerase activity?

A number of studies indicate telomerase activity is modulated by phosphorylation [reviewed in [38]. Putative phosphorylation sites are present in the TERT sequences from mammals [39] and plants [35]. At least two kinases are implicated in hTERT phosphorylation. Thus, c-Abl negatively regulates telomerase activity.

Does telomerase contain DNA?

Telomerase is an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, meaning an enzyme that can make DNA using RNA as a template. When the overhang is long enough, a matching strand can be made by the normal DNA replication machinery (that is, using an RNA primer and DNA polymerase), producing double-stranded DNA.

Can mRNA affect telomeres?

Researchers concluded that the delivery of TERT mRNA temporarily increases telomerase activity, proliferative capacity, and telomere length without making cell culture immortal. It can extend telomeres in fibroblasts by 50% – 90% in a few days (in human lifetime fibroblast telomeres shorten approximately 1-2kb).

Why is too much telomerase bad?

Too much telomerase can help confer immortality onto cancer cells and actually increase the likelihood of cancer, whereas too little telomerase can also increase cancer by depleting the healthy regenerative potential of the body.