RESEARCH SEMINAR: Telomeres and Telomerase: Evolving Dance Partners at the Chromosome Terminus

 
 
Telomeres are higher order nucleoprotein complexes that protect the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and play essential roles in conferring genome stability and cell proliferation capacity. Telomere tracts are synthesized and maintained by telomerase, a highly regulated reverse transcriptase that continually replenishes telomeric DNA using its RNA subunit as a template. My laboratory developed the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system for studying the fundamental properties of telomeres and telomerase in multicellular organisms.  This lecture will focus on the emergence of a novel regulatory pathway for Arabidopsis telomerase fueled by duplication and neofunctionalization of the telomerase RNA subunit.