What Is a Telomere? All the Basic FAQ"s About It
They are present in almost every part of our body even in hair and nails.
DNA has a section that stores information generally known as genes.
And millions of DNA forms chromosomes that are responsible for helping in creating life.
There are some small dot like objects at the end of each chromosome which is called telomeres.
Now, the basic question that comes to our mind is- what is a telomere? Well, it is that which is responsible for stopping the degradation of the end points of chromosomes.
It also works with the replication process and cell division.
There are some very basic things that most people should know but as the concept of telomeres is a bit deep, it becomes very difficult for people to understand.
But before you read further about telomeres, you need to know the basics of DNA and chromosomes.
Once you have the knowledge it will be easy to answer the what is a telomere question.
And understand everything about it.
There are some FAQ's that are very common about telomeres.
What is a telomere basically? Telomere is a name which is derived from Greek word Telo which means end and mere which means point.
Telomeres are a part in chromosomes which are present at the end of each chromosome strand and a duplicative part of DNA which stops the chromosome end from degrading.
Two, what is telomerase reverse transcriptase? When cell division takes place, the telomeres divides and as each end of chromosome should have a set number to protect it, so telomerase is an enzyme that refills the need of the telomeres in that chromosome end.
Three, what is a telomere capping? As the telomeres are available at the end of the chromosomes and protect the end points, therefore, in general term they call it capping the chromosomes at the ends.
Four, what is the relation between cell division and telomeres? As a person or organism grows with age, there are many cells that divide to give us multi-cellular and at the time of division, the telomeres from each cell or chromosome divides into 2 parts to form or duplicate a chromosome so that telomeres are required for that new chromosome too.
Five, what is a telomere structure? Though the DNA is a helical form, the telomeres are in Quadruple structure and this structure can even be used to protect the DNA ends and stop the repair system in DNA which sometimes is mistaken to be damaged.
Six, what is meant by telomere shortening? Telomere shortening is a problem faced by DNA at the time of replication or duplication.
It is called the end replication problem.
During this problem, the cell division slows down and may multiply the cancer cells.
This can be cured by attaching long ends.
Seven, what is meant by telomere lengthening? This is also considered as a replication problem as when the telomere lengthening exists, the person or organism loses lot of energy very soon.
It can be cured by adding shortening telomeres but risk of cancer prevails.