Structural biology of telomerase and its interaction at telomeres

Yaqiang Wang; Juli Feigon

doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2017.06.010

Structural biology of telomerase and its interaction at telomeres

Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2017 Dec:47:77-87. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2017.06.010. Epub 2017 Jul 18.

Authors

Yaqiang Wang¹, Juli Feigon²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569, USA.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569, USA. Electronic address: feigon@mbi.ucla.edu.

Abstract

Telomerase is an RNP that synthesizes the 3' ends of linear chromosomes and is an important regulator of telomere length. It contains a single long non-coding telomerase RNA (TER), telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), and other proteins that vary among organisms. Recent progress in structural biology of telomerase includes reports of the first cryo-electron microscopy structure of telomerase, from Tetrahymena, new crystal structures of TERT domains, telomerase RNA structures and models, and identification in Tetrahymena telomerase holoenzyme of human homologues of telomere-associated proteins that have provided a more unified view of telomerase interaction at telomeres as well as insights into the role of telomerase RNA in activity and assembly.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Cryoelectron Microscopy
Models, Biological
Models, Molecular
Nucleic Acid Conformation
Protein Binding
Protein Conformation
Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
Structure-Activity Relationship
Telomerase / chemistry*
Telomerase / metabolism*
Telomere / chemistry*
Telomere / genetics
Telomere / metabolism*

Substances

Telomerase

Grants and funding

R01 GM048123/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States