Telomere maintenance and telomerase activity are differentially regulated in asexual and sexual worms.

ABSTRACT: In most sexually reproducing animals, replication and maintenance of telomeres occurs in the germ line and during early development in embryogenesis through the use of telomerase. Somatic cells generally do not maintain telomere sequences, and these cells become senescent in adults as telomeres shorten to a critical length. Some animals reproduce clonally and must therefore require adult somatic mechanisms for maintaining their chromosome ends. Here we study the telomere biology of planarian flatworms with apparently limitless regenerative capacity fueled by a population of highly proliferative adult stem cells. We show that somatic telomere maintenance is different in asexual and sexual animals. Asexual animals maintain telomere length somatically during reproduction by fission or when re

SUBMITTER: Tan TC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3306686 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature