Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
A role of LINE-1 in telomere regulation
1 Surgical Research Laboratories, Dept. of Surgery,Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
2 Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Abstract
Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE-1) are well known as retrotransposons. A number of reports indicate that down-regulation of LINE-1 substantially affects growth of malignant cells and epithelial mesenchymal transition, which is difficult to be explained by its function as retrotransposon. More recent data indicate that LINE-1 is broadly involved in the regulation of telomere maintenance. This explains the essential role of LINE-1 for survival of malignant cells and further supports a global function of active LINE-1 elements in cell proliferation. We further discuss the implications of LINE-1-associated telomere regulation on evolution of telomeric structures, on embryogenesis and on therapy of malignancies.
Keywords
- Telomere
- LINE-1
- Shelterin
- Telomerase
- Retrotransposon
- Reverse Transciptase Inhibitors
- Review