端粒维持研究进展

Porgress on mechanism of telomeres maintaining

端粒是现代生物学的研究热点 ,与肿瘤发生、基因表达调控、衰老有着密切的关系。本综述介绍当前对端粒维持机理研究的进展。在端粒维持过程中有两类重要的蛋白 :端粒相关蛋白和端粒酶。端粒相关蛋白是直接或间接与端粒结合的蛋白 ,在维持端粒稳定性方面有重要作用。端粒酶 ,特别是其催化亚基hTERT ,在端粒延长过程中起着不可替代的作用 ,与细胞永生化和癌变密切相关。此外还介绍了在某些细胞中存在的不依赖端粒酶的端粒延长机制 。

Telomeres are in the spotlight of mordern biology. Cancer, gene regulation, aging etc seem to depend on what happens at the telomeres. Here we give a brief review on current process on mechanism of telomeres maintaining. There are two classes of proteins which are important in telomeres maintaining. One is telomere associated proteins , the other is telomerase. A summaryof human telomere associated proteins is provided in this paper. It is important to realize that the enzyme telomerase , especialy its catalytic subunit hTERT plays a crucial role in telomeres lengthening, which is essential in cellular proliferation and tumorigenesis. In addition , alternative machanisms for lengthening of telomeres (ALT) is introduced although little is known about it currently