Telomeres and Apoptosis

Telomeres are specialised short DNA sequences that form the ends of linear DNA eukaryotic chromosomes. They contain many copies (-1000 or more) of the short sequence 5-TTAGGG-3 (in humans), and their function is to protect the ends of the chromosomes from degradation. The enzyme telomerase (a ribonucleoprotein complex) is responsible for their synthesis, which is independent of 

It was recently discovered that telomeres can wind themselves into quadruple helices (Chapter 10.4). Such quadruplexes are believed to inhibit the activity of telemerases and may have anti-cancer potential. 

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