A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. Telopred is a standalone tool designed using CGI-PERL. Telopred identifies telomere like regions using pattern matching in Eukaryotic genes. Telomere length varies greatly between species, from approximately 300 to 600 base pairs in yeast (Shampay et al., 1984) to many kilobases in humans, and usually is composed of arrays of guanine- rich, six-to- eight base-pair-long repeats. Eukaryotic telomeres normally terminate with 3' single-stranded-DNA overhang which is essential for telomere maintenance and capping. Telomere shortening in humans can induce replicative senescence which blocks cell division. This mechanism appears to prevent genomic instability and development of cancer in human aged cells by limiting the number of cell divisions. Malignant cells which bypass this arrest become immortalized by telomere extension mostly due to the activation of telomerase, the reverse transcriptase enzyme responsible for synthesis of telomeres.

Home     Help     Back