ZNAJDŹ ARTYKUŁ

Volume: 
Issue: 
4
Date of issue: 
Senescence occurs in every living organism. Revolutionary studies of McClintock, Blackburn and Szostak led to the discovery of telomeres, telomerase enzyme complex and telomere shortening-related aging processes. Current scientific knowledge brings the scientists closer to the recognition of the basic courses and processes behind organisms’ senescence, although this advance seems to be more regressive than progressive in modern days when multiple studies discover new possibilities and bring even more questions than answers. Drosophila melanogaster is used as a good model of organism that represents genomic, proteomic and epigenetics behaviors very close to the higher organisms, including primates and humans. Though the telomere structure in D. melanogaster differs distinctly from other organisms (Arthropods’ telomeres stay as an exception to the repeated, palindromic DNA telomeric sequences found in other eukaryotes), conserved nature of IME4 and similar cellular involvement in the telomere maintenance may answer the question whether mRNA methyltransferases (human’s homolog of IME4 is MTA-70) can actively participate in telomere elongation. This review focuses on genetic aspects of D. melanogaster telomere maintenance and presents hypothetical approaches that could be utilized in the fruit flies telomeres experiments, and also indicates conjectural application of the knowledge in the human aspect of gerontology.
Author of the article: 

Redakcja
Andrzej ŁUKASZYK – przewodniczący, Szczepan BILIŃSKI,
Mieczysław CHORĄŻY, Włodzimierz KOROHODA,
Leszek KUŹNICKI, Lech WOJTCZAK

Adres redakcji:
Katedra i Zakład Histologii i Embriologii Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu, ul. Święcickiego 6, 60-781 Poznań, tel. +48 61 8546453, fax. +48 61 8546440, email: mnowicki@ump.edu.pl

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