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Short telomeres are preferentially elongated by telomerase in human cells
Author(s) -
Britt-Compton Bethan,
Capper Rebecca,
Rowson Jan,
Baird Duncan M.
Publication year - 2009
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/j.febslet.2009.08.029
Subject(s) - telomere , telomerase , elongation , biology , strain (injury) , microbiology and biotechnology , cell , genetics , dna , gene , anatomy , materials science , ultimate tensile strength , metallurgy
Short telomeres have been shown to be preferentially elongated in both yeast and mouse models. We examined this in human cells, by utilising cells with large allelic telomere length differentials and observing the relative rates of elongation following the expression of hTERT. We observed that short telomeres are gradually elongated in the first 26 PDs of growth, whereas the longer telomeres displayed limited elongation in this period. Telomeres coalesced at similar lengths irrespective of their length prior to the expression of hTERT. These data indicate that short telomeres are marked for gradual elongation to a cell strain specific length threshold.