Orchestrating nucleic acid-protein interactions at chromosome ends: telomerase mechanisms come into focus.

ABSTRACT: Telomerase is a special reverse transcriptase ribonucleoprotein dedicated to the synthesis of telomere repeats that protect chromosome ends. Among reverse transcriptases, telomerase is unique in using a stably associated RNA with an embedded template to synthesize a specified sequence. Moreover, it is capable of iteratively copying the same template region (repeat addition processivity) through multiple rounds of RNA-DNA unpairing and reannealing, that is, the translocation reaction. Biochemical analyses of telomerase over the past 3 decades in protozoa, fungi and mammals have identified structural elements that underpin telomerase mechanisms and have led to models that account for the special attributes of telomerase. Notably, these findings and models can now be interpreted and adjudicat

SUBMITTER: Lue NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10539978 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature