The protein subunit of telomerase displays patterns of dynamic evolution and conservation across different metazoan taxa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Most animals employ telomerase, which consists of a catalytic subunit known as the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and an RNA template, to maintain telomere ends. Given the importance of TERT and telomere biology in core metazoan life history traits, like ageing and the control of somatic cell proliferation, we hypothesised that TERT would have patterns of sequence and regulatory evolution reflecting the diverse life histories across the Animal Kingdom.

Results

We performed a complete investigation of the evolutionary history of TERT across animals. We show that although TERT is almost ubiquitous across Metazoa, it has undergone substantial sequence evolution within canonical motifs. Beyond the known canonical motifs, we also identify and compare regions t

SUBMITTER: Lai AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5405514 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature