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Telomerase activity in plant cells
Author(s) -
Fajkus Jiří,
Kovařík Aleš,
Královics Robert
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(96)00757-0
Subject(s) - telomerase , telomere , somatic cell , ribonucleoprotein , telomerase rna component , biology , rnase p , chromosome , microbiology and biotechnology , nicotiana tabacum , dna , plant cell , cell division , cell cycle , cell culture , cell , genetics , telomerase reverse transcriptase , rna , gene
Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme which elongates the G‐rich strand of telomeric DNA to compensate for the progressive reduction in its length due to incomplete replication of chromosome ends, which in human somatic cells leads to cell cycle arrest upon shortening of telomeres to a critical length. To examine the possible involvement of telomerase in metabolism of plant genetic material, we used cells of Nicotiana tabacum strain TBY‐2, a stable long‐term culture which has kept a constant pattern of restriction fragments from chromosome termini during its 6 month period of cultivation in our laboratory. In a direct assay for telomerase, a 5′ end‐labeled plant telomeric oligonucleotide 5′ (TTTAGGG) 6 3′ was elongated in a TBY‐2 cell extract, showing a pausing pattern which is a characteristic feature of telomerases from other organisms. The elongation was inhibited by RNase A pretreatment of the extract. We conclude that plant cells possess telomerase which is used for maintenance of their telomeres.