Abstract

ROLE OF TELOMERES AND TELOMERASE IN AGING

*Sahaya Asirvatham, Rupali Yadav and Hitesh Chaube

Abstract

Telomeres are sequences of DNA chains of chemical code. Telomeres are made of repeating sequences of TTAGGG on one strand paired with AATCCC on the other strand. Cells normally can divide only about 50 to 70 times, with telomeres getting progressively shorter until the cells become senescent or die. Telomere is the biologic time clock at the end of your chromosomes. Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein that is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats ("TTAGGG" in all vertebrates) to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomerase has many diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic potential applications for the future. If the telomerase is reactivated in cells that have gone into senescence, the cells could continue to divide and bypass cellular aging. Telomerase could also be used to slow the rate of telomere loss and as a result extend cell life span.

Keywords: Telomeres, telomerase, ribonucleoprotein, chromosomes.