Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Jan 19;8(1):73.
doi: 10.3390/cells8010073.

Telomere Biology and Human Phenotype

Kara J Turner  1 , Vimal Vasu  2   3 , Darren K Griffin  4
Affiliations
Review

Telomere Biology and Human Phenotype

Kara J Turner et al. Cells. .

Abstract

Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures that cap the end of each chromosome arm and function to maintain genome stability. The length of telomeres is known to shorten with each cell division and it is well-established that telomere attrition is related to replicative capacity in vitro. Moreover, telomere loss is also correlated with the process of aging in vivo. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms that lead to telomere shortening and summarise telomere homeostasis in humans throughout a lifetime. In addition, we discuss the available evidence that shows that telomere shortening is related to human aging and the onset of age-related disease.

Keywords: aging; senescence; telomere length; telomeres.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the preparation or writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish this review.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The T-loop and the D-loop. The 3′ end of the G rich strand (blue) protrudes as a single stranded extension of the telomere. This G-strand overhang loops back to form a T-loop and invades the 5′ double stranded telomeric duplex, forming a D-loop.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Blackburn E., Szostak J. The molecular structure of centromeres and telomeres. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 1984;53:163–194. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.53.070184.001115. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Meyne J., Ratliff R.L., MoYzIs R.K. Conservation of the human telomere sequence (TTAGGG) n among vertebrates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 1989;86:7049–7053. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.18.7049. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. De Lange T. Shelterin: The protein complex that shapes and safeguards human telomeres. Genes Dev. 2005;19:2100–2110. doi: 10.1101/gad.1346005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. De Lange T. T-loops and the origin of telomeres. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2004;5:323–329. doi: 10.1038/nrm1359. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Webb C.J., Wu Y., Zakian V.A. DNA repair at telomeres: Keeping the ends intact. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 2013;5:a012666. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a012666. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources

  NODES
Association 1
HOME 5
iOS 6
Javascript 1
OOP 10
os 23
text 12
twitter 2
web 5