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Glossary

• ALT - The telomerase independent mechanism, ALT stands for Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres
• Antisense Oligonucleotides
-A short fragment of DNA, of usually between 2 and 12 nucleotides, used to hinder or block a process.
• Apoptosis - Programmed cell death, the mechanism by which old or damaged cells self-destruct.
• base- pairing - In a complete helix the Adenine(A) always lines up with Thymine(T) and the Guanine(G) with Cytosine(C).
• Binding Site - Point of attachment
• Catalyst (catalyse)- substances which speed up reactions but which do not get used up themselves
• DNA- is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, it is a special chemical that carries the hereditary information in almost all living things.
• Enzymes - enzymes are proteins. They are very important substances that control the chemical reactions that happen in our bodies. They are known as biological catalysts
• Fusion - the end-to-end joining of two chromosomes to make one chromosome
• gene - section of a chromosome which codes for a protein or RNA product.
• Germline cells - A group of cells in most testes or ovaries which give rise to the reproductive cells
• G-tetrad - Four nucleotide strands are involved in a G-tetrad, with participation from one Guanine in each strand
• G-quadruplex - Successive layering of 2 or more G-tetrads forms a box-like structure with a central cavity
• Hydrogen bond- weak link between a hydrogen atom and an electronegative element such as nitrogen or oxygen
• hTERT - The first component of telomerase is called hTERT, it catalyses the lengthening of the telomere by acting as a template for the second telomerase component to bind to.
• hTR - The second component of the telomerase enzyme, which acts as a template for the extension of the telomere.
• Organism- Any individual living thing, both animal or plant.
• Malignant - Tending to become progressively worse and to result in death.
• Nucleotides - The small units that link together to form a long chain DNA
• Nucleus - organelle in the centre of the cell which contains the chromosomes.
• NMR - An imaging technique
• Protein- Proteins are molecules that play a critical role in the structure, function and regulation of the cells in you body
• Replicate - to produce an exact copy of the original DNA strand
• RNA - stands for Ribonucleic acid, which is found in all living cells. RNA plays a role in transferring information from DNA to the protein
• Senescence - when a cell ceases to divide.
• Somatic cell - Any cell in your body that is not a germ cell (reproductive cell)
• Stem cells - used to describe the most primitive cells in the bone marrow from which all the various types of blood cell are derived.
• t-loop - This allows the extreme single-stranded end of the telomere to be folded-back and completely buried within the double stranded region to form a complex structure
• telomerase - An enzyme with rather unusual properties that will only elongate telomeric DNA and not other DNA sequences.
• X-ray crystallography - A technique that deals with the geometric description of crystals and their internal arrangement.

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