The relationships of telomere and telomerase with human genome stability and health

Telomere is a GC-riched repetitive sequence that at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes,which function is to maintain the chromosomes integrity,protect chromosomal DNA from degradation,deletion,fusion,and aberrant rearrangements.In cells that lack telomerase,telomeres shorten with each cell division due to incomplete replication of the lagging strand.Telomere attrition likely leads to chromosome instability,cellular senescence,and apoptosis.It also associate with many kinds of human degenerative diseases.This review discuss the relationship between the telomere structure,function and the genomes stability from the new study about the telomere structure,telomerase with aging,cancer and congenital dyskeratosis. Key words: Telomere ;  Telomerase ;  Senescence ;  DNA repair ;  Chromosome instability