Regulation of murine telomere length via Rtel
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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Utilizing Murine Inducible Telomerase Alleles in the Studies of Tissue Degeneration/Regeneration and Cancer
Published on: April 13, 2015
1Department of Neuroscience, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, 100 Newell Dr., L1-100, Gainesville, FL 32610-0244, USA. beflana@ufl.edu
Abstract:
Normal somatic cells have a finite replicative capacity. With each cell division, telomeres (the physical ends of linear chromosomes) progressively shorten until they reach a critical length, at which point the cells enter replicative senescence. Some cells can maintain telomere length by the action of the telomerase enzyme. A recent article described in detail the organization and function of Rtel, a murine gene encoding a DNA helicase-like protein. The Rtel protein was found to be essential for genomic stability and embryonic development and survival, and is proposed to be a dominant regulator of murine telomere length.
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