ИСТИНА

Telomerase is a major participant in telomere homeostasis within eukaryotic cells. It is active in a number of cell types: stem, germ, embryonic and cancer cells. The majority of somatic cells doesn’t retain active telomerase, and its reactivation drives cancer transformation. Expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase is tightly regulated in cells, but the telomerase RNA component expresses constitutively. It was postulated that hTR is long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). It is transcribed by RNA-polymerase II as a precursor that matures to the 451 nt catalytically active RNA. We have investigated the processing events occur at the 3’-end of hTR precursor. The long hTR precursor has alternative function and the functioning of it is now under investigation.