Characterization of tree shrew telomeres and telomerase

作     者：Jian Sun Wenjing Liu Yongbo Guo Hailin Zhang Dewei Jiang Ying Luo Rong Liu Ceshi Chen Jian Sun;Wenjing Liu;Yongbo Guo;Hailin Zhang;Dewei Jiang;Ying Luo;Rong Liu;Ceshi Chen

作者机构：Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences&Yunnan ProvinceNational Resource Center for Non-Human PrimatesKunming Primate Research CenterNational Research Facility for Phenotypic&Genetic Analysis of Model Animals(Primate Facility)Kunming Institute of ZoologyKunmingYunnan 650201China Kunming College of Life SciencesUniversity of Chinese Academy SciencesKunmingYunnan 650204China State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and EvolutionKunming Institute of ZoologyChinese Academy of SciencesKunmingYunnan 650223China Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Aging&TumorMedical FacultyKunming University of Science and TechnologyKunmingYunnan 650500China 

出 版 物：《Journal of Genetics and Genomics》 (遗传学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2021年第48卷第7期

页      面：631-639页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 1001[医学-基础医学(可授医学、理学学位)] 10[医学] 

基　　金：supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2018YFC2000400,2020YFA0112300 to C.Chen) National Natural Science Foundation of China(81830087,31771516 to C.Chen) project of Innovative Research Team of Yunnan Province(2019HC005) CAS“light of West China”Program(xbzg-zdsys-201909)。 

主　　题：Tree shrews Telomere TERT TERC Breast cancer 

摘      要：The use of tree shrews as experimental animals for biomedical research is a new practice.Several recent studies suggest that tree shrews are suitable for studying cancers,including breast cancer,glioblastoma,lung cancer,and hepatocellular carcinoma.However,the telomeres and the telomerase of tree shrews have not been studied to date.Here,we characterize telomeres and telomerase in tree shrews.The telomere length of tree shrews is approximately 23 kb,which is longer than that of primates and shorter than that of mice,and it is extended in breast tumor tissues according to Southern blot and flow-fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH)analyses.Tree shrew spleen,bone marrow,testis,ovary,and uterus show high telomerase activities,which are increased in breast tumor tissues by telomeric repeat amplification protocol assays.The telomere length becomes shorter,and telomerase activity decreases with age.The tree shrew TERT and TERC are more highly similar to primates than to rodents.These findings lay a solid foundation for using tree shrews to study aging and cancers.