Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York
University School of Medicine, New York, New York
10016, USA. smithsu@saturn.med.nyu.edu
Telomere maintenance is required for chromosome stability. Telomeres
are maintained principally by the action of the reverse transcriptase telomerase.
In cells that lack telomerase, telomere length is preserved by an alternate
mechanism termed ALT. A new study reports that recombination between telomeres
is responsible for ALT in human cells. As telomerase is a potential target
for cancer therapy, these findings indicate that an assault on telomere maintenance
may have to contend with two pathways.
