Cureus | G-quadruplex formation at the 3′ end of telomere DNA inhibits its extension by telomerase, polymerase and unwinding by helicase
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Research Article

G-quadruplex formation at the 3′ end of telomere DNA inhibits its extension by telomerase, polymerase and unwinding by helicase

Quan Wang, Jia-quan Liu, Zhao Chen, Ke-wei Zheng, Chang-yue Chen, Yu-hua Hao, Zheng Tan

Published: August 01, 2011

DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkr164

License: © The Author(s) 2011. Published by Oxford University Press.2011This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Telomere G-quadruplex is emerging as a promising anti-cancer target due to its inhibition to telomerase, an enzyme expressed in more than 85% tumors. Telomerase-mediated telomere extension and some other reactions require a free 3′ telomere end in single-stranded form. G-quadruplex formation near the 3′ end of telomere DNA can leave a 3′ single-stranded tail of various sizes. How these terminal structures affect reactions at telomere end is not clear. In this work, we studied the 3′ tail size-dependence of telomere extension by either telomerase or the alternative lengthening of telomere (ALT) mechanism as well as telomere G-quadruplex unwinding. We show that these reactions require a minimal tail of 8, 12 and 6 nt, respectively. Since we have shown that G-quadruplex tends to form at the farthest 3′ distal end of telomere DNA leaving a tail of no more than 5 nt, these results imply that G-quadruplex formation may play a role in regulating reactions at the telomere ends and, as a result, serve as effective drug target for intervening telomere function.


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Scholarly Impact Quotient™ (SIQ™)

Scholarly Impact Quotient™ (SIQ™) is our unique post-publication peer review rating process. SIQ™ assesses article importance and quality by embracing the collective intelligence of the Cureus community-at-large. All registered users are invited to contribute to the SIQ™ of any published article. (Authors cannot rate their own articles.)

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