The RNA Component of Human Telomerase

Junli Feng(Menlo School), Walter D. Funk(Menlo School), Sy-Shi Wang(Menlo School), Scott L. Weinrich(Menlo School), Ariel A. Avilion(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Choy‐Pik Chiu(Menlo School), Robert R. Adams(Menlo School), Edwin Chang(Menlo School), Richard Allsopp(Menlo School), Jinghua Yu(Menlo School), Siyuan Le(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Michael D. West(Menlo School), Calvin B. Harley(Menlo School), William H. Andrews(Menlo School), Carol W. Greider(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Bryant Villeponteau(Menlo School)
Science
September 1, 1995
10.1126/science.7544491
Cited by 2,248

Abstract

Eukaryotic chromosomes are capped with repetitive telomere sequences that protect the ends from damage and rearrangements. Telomere repeats are synthesized by telomerase, a ribonucleic acid (RNA)-protein complex. Here, the cloning of the RNA component of human telomerase, termed hTR, is described. The template region of hTR encompasses 11 nucleotides (5'-CUAACCCUAAC) complementary to the human telomere sequence (TTAGGG)n. Germline tissues and tumor cell lines expressed more hTR than normal somatic cells and tissues, which have no detectable telomerase activity. Human cell lines that expressed hTR mutated in the template region generated the predicted mutant telomerase activity. HeLa cells transfected with an antisense hTR lost telomeric DNA and began to die after 23 to 26 doublings. Thus, human telomerase is a critical enzyme for the long-term proliferation of immortal tumor cells.

Related Papers

No related papers found

Powered by citation graph analysis