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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Modified Terminal Restriction Fragment Analysis for Quantifying Telomere Length Using In-gel Hybridization
Published on: July 10, 2017
Telomeric Terminal Restriction Fragment (TRF)
1Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD.
Abstract:
Telomeres are protein-DNA structures at the ends of all eukaryotic chromosomes that are maintained by a unique ribonucleoprotein known as telomerase. This highly specialized RNA-dependent DNA polymerase provides a critical solution to the end-replication problem by adding TTAGGG repeats to 3' ends of human chromosomes (1-3). Telomere regulation is both cell cycle and developmentally-regulated, and its control is likely to be complex (4,5). There is gradual telomere shortening with age. This chromosomal pruning is presumed to be regulated by a mitotic clock, by which cell divisions are accounted (6,7). After about 100 cell divisions, a cell reaches its senescence "Hayflick" limit and cell division ceases (8).
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