| 释义 |
telomerase, n. Genetics
Brit. |tɛˈlɒməreɪz|, U.S. |tɛˈlɑməˌreɪs|, |tɛˈlɑməˌreɪz|
[‹ telomere n. at telo- comb. form1 Affix + -ase suffix, after polymerase n. (replacing the fuller phrase telomere terminal transferase (1985)).]
A ribonucleoprotein enzyme, incorporating a reverse transcriptase and an RNA template, which can extend the telomere region at the end of a chromosome by adding a characteristic repeated DNA sequence to the ends of the strands, so enabling continued chromosome replication.
1987C. W. Greider & E. H. Blackburn in Cell 51 887 Telomerase was shown to be a ribonucleoprotein complex whose RNA and protein components were both essential for activity. 1995Sci. News 25 Nov. 362/1 Telomeres, which cap the ends of chromosomes, and telomerase, the odd enzyme that constructs those caps, may hold the key to understanding what determines the life span of human cells. 2004Jrnl. Cell Biol. 164637/1 Telomerase is mechanistically a reverse transcriptase, but to the grateful genomes on which it operates it is a chromosome end-specific DNA polymerase. |