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- Title
On the origin of telomeres: a glimpse at the pre-telomerase world.
- Authors
Nosek, Jozef; Kosa, Peter; Tomaska, Lubomir
- Abstract
The article focuses on the origin and development of telomeres. Significantly, chromosomes may be either circular or linear, the latter being prone to erosion caused by incomplete replication, degradation and inappropriate repair. The high incidence of linear chromosomes and genomes evokes why and how they evolved. The author suggested that the primordial terminal structures of linear chromosomes in eukaryotic nuclei were derived from selfish elements caused by the linearization of ancestral circular genome. Molecular fossils of such elements in phylogenetically distant genomes were shown to generate terminal arrays of tandem repeats where it might mediate the formation of higher order structures at chromosomal termini that stabilize the linear chromosomal form by fulfilling essential telomeric functions.
- Subjects
TELOMERES; CHROMOSOMES; DNA polymerases; TELOMERASE; GENOMES; GENETICS; CLADISTIC analysis
- Publication
BioEssays, 2006, Vol 28, Issue 2, p182
- ISSN
0265-9247
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/bies.20355