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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Telomerase is a large ribonucleoprotein complex minimally composed of a catalytic telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and an RNA component (TR) that provides the template for telomeric DNA synthesis. However, it remains unclear how TERT and TR assemble into a functional telomerase. Here we report the crystal structure of the conserved regions 4 and 5 (CR4/5) of TR in complex with the TR-binding domain (TRBD) of TERT from the teleost fish Oryzias latipes. The structure shows that CR4/5 adopts an L-shaped three-way-junction conformation with its two arms clamping onto TRBD. Both the sequence and conformation of CR4/5 are required for the interaction. Our structural and mutational analyses suggest that the observed CR4/5-TRBD recognition is common to most eukaryotes, and CR4/5 in vertebrate TR might have a similar role in telomerase regulation as that of stem-loop IV in Tetrahymena TR.

Structural basis for protein-RNA recognition in telomerase.,Huang J, Brown AF, Wu J, Xue J, Bley CJ, Rand DP, Wu L, Zhang R, Chen JJ, Lei M Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2014 Jun;21(6):507-12. doi: 10.1038/nsmb.2819. Epub 2014 May, 4. PMID:24793650^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.