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Updated: Jun 11, 2025

Generation of Cancer Cell Clones to Visualize Telomeric Repeat-containing RNA TERRA Expressed from a Single Telomere in Living Cells
Published on: January 17, 2019
TERRA long noncoding RNA: At the interphase of telomere damage, rescue and signaling
Eftychia Kyriacou1, Joachim Lingner1
1Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
TERRA long noncoding RNAs play key roles in telomere function and maintenance. They can orchestrate telomeric chromatin remodeling, regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase and homology-directed repair, and they participate in the telomeric DNA damage response. TERRA associates with chromosome ends through base-pairing forming R-loops, which are mediated by the RAD51 DNA recombinase and its partner RAD51AP1. Telomeric R-loops interfere with replication fork progression, stimulating a switch of telomere maintenance from semiconservative DNA replication to homology-directed repair (HDR). The latter mechanism is exploited by a subset of cancer cells that lack telomerase, referred to as ALT. In addition, TERRA stimulates HDR at short telomeres during aging, delaying cellular senescence. During carcinogenesis, when cells with eroded telomeres enter replicative crisis, TERRA acts as a signaling molecule to mediate autophagic cell death.
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