Functions And Relationship With Age And The Mutations Affecting Children

Instead of losing telomeres after each reproduction, the cells replenish, or lengthen, the telomeres using an enzyme called telomerase.

The length of the telomere indicates age-related diseases, unhealthy lifestyle, and longevity in the lifespan.

Scientist have seen that telomerase expressing clones have no difference in karyotype but have a long lifespan by 20 doublings. With this research, cells have been seen to have a very youthful looking state for much longer. A last area of study is the hypothalamus of the brain. This part of the brain controls reproduction, growth, metabolism, and aging. This is where many of the age related diseases occur. The study of this area can lead to many advancements in age related diseases that can help people live longer. Though this area of study does not have many advancements it holds promising results. Though there have been numerous advancements, many people ask the question whether people need to live longer because of an already over populated Earth.

In Chapter 27 “The Secret to Immortality” of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot provided an explanation to why HeLa cells were “immortal” unlike other mortal cancer cells; the p53 tumor suppressor gene had been “turned off” by the Human Papilloma Virus Lacks had. She mentions how according to the Hayflick Limit, human cell’s were able to replicate an average of fifty times. In addition, she explains how telomeres in cells shrink slightly every time the cell divides. According to Aging Cell’s 2004 article “The Cellular Lifespan and Senescence Signalring in Embryonic Stem Cells,” tumor cells “have high telomerase activity” yet they are not immortal. HeLa cells, similarly to Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells have the tumor suppressor gene p53 turned off. This differentiates HeLa from other tumor cells; while other tumor cells will replicated more than the average cell and eventually reach senescence, HeLa continues to replicate to this day thanks to the HPV virus that turned off its

Telomerase is able to add DNA nucleotides to the ends of telomeres (the end of DNA sequences). After replication, a small amount of the telomeres are cut off. When the telomeres are cut too many times, the cell has met its Hayflick limit. It is believed that when an individuals cells have divided too many times, that they die.

As our cells divide and our DNA replicates, our telomeres provide a start and an end point for the enzyme DNA polymerase to attach to our chromosomes and replicate our DNA. By using a repeated, non-coding section of DNA as the starting point for this replication, the telomeres allow our cells to replicate without damaging important genes at the attachment point of the replicating enzyme. As this occurs though, our telomere begin to lose base pairs

Humans undergo several stages during their lifetime including growth, development, reproduction and senescence. Senescence is defined as the deteriorative biological changes that organisms experience as they age eventually leading to death. These changes include low metabolism, a weak immune system, memory loss, poor vision and loss of hearing. Senescence begins in humans during their post-reproductive years. However, gerontology research has shown that individuals who reproduce late have longer life spans compared to individuals who reproduce early. Nonetheless, it does not indicate that senescence is inevitable. All organisms experience senescence,

Progeria is a very rare disease and affects about one in 4-8 million children, with an estimated 200-250 cases worldwide. It affects males and females equally and is found in all races. HGPS is not usually passed down in families; it’s extremely rare and almost always happens by

Telomerase (or terminal transferase) is an enzyme made of proteins, specifically reverse transcriptase (Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase-TERT), and RNA subunits. Nonetheless, chicken TERT (chTERT) shares 45% amino acid identity with human TERT (hTERT). However, chTERT is larger than the hTERT because of an extensive N-terminal flexible linker region. Also, chTERT is found on chromosome 2q21 near an interstitial telomere site. Generally, the role of this enzyme is to elongate the end of chromosomes by adding the repeated base sequence of TTAGGG, as described above. This enzyme can be found in fetal tissue, germ cells, and tumor cells. Telomerase activity is critical high on development because of the continued growth and division of the cells.

The telomerase carry its own RNAs molecule as a template to restoring the telomere back to its proper length after the cell division. Since the telomere is consist of dark matter that helps protect the cell from losing any important DNA. The DNA that which is located in the cell nucleus. Telomere, “a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromosome” (“What Is a Telomere?), which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration, from combining with neighboring chromosomes. However, if the telomere is shortened the enzyme telomerase will do its best to fix itself and the telomere can not be fix regardless of how hard the telomerase tries to restore its length. Once the telomere is shortened the “SOS response, and the cell will do one of two things: stop replicating by turning itself off, becoming what is known as senescent; stop replicating by dying, called apoptosis” (“What Happens When DNA Becomes Damaged?”). If the telomere decides to continue to divide, becoming abnormal and potentially dangerous for the human body it can lead to having cancer. Overall, if understanding the gene expression of the enzyme telomerase restoring a dark matter shows that dark matter are the instructor that gives instruction to encoding

Telomeres are shortened due to the fact that DNA polymerase are not able to copy the end of the strands that it is replicating. This causes it to shorten, then when it is duplicated once again it is shortened even more, and this process just keeps continuing until the telomere is too short to complete its copying. When telomere lengths become too short, a certain DNA defense goes into action, and this reaction leads to aging. So it is a proven fact that there is a significant relationship between telomere length and the speeding up of physical aging (Prescott, Kraft, & Chasman, 2011).

Aging is the process of becoming older, as we age, multiple mutations occur that concern all the processes of aging well as it compromising a number of different genes. There are many theories of biological aging, such as the Cellular Aging Theory, Immunological Theory, and the Wear and Tear Theory. The Cellular Aging theory describes the process of aging in which cells slow their number of replication, thus giving each species a “biological clock that determines its maximum life span” and how quickly one 's health will deteriorate(Hooyman, 42). After a certain number of years, each cell which follows an apparent biological clock starts to replicate itself less, thus the specific individual or species slowly deteriorates. This theory gives

Also spelled as ageing, this is generally the process of becoming old. It is the in a way the opposite of immortality. In a broader aspect, it may occur to single cells in an organism also called cellular senescence or the population of a species, known as population ageing. This process primarily affects human beings and fungi. In humans, it signifies the accumulation of various changes which occur over time. The changes include physical, social and psychological changes.

Telomeres are terminal sequences of genomic DNA. They are important for the stability of chromosomes. Centromeres are sequences located in centers of chromosomes. They are important for chromosome stability and cell division.

DNA polymerase is a very important enzyme when it comes to DNA replication. DNA polymerase, more specifically, is involved in the process of reading and adding nucleotides to the DNA strand so a complimentary stand can be made. During the DNA replication process DNA polymerase puts new nucleotides on the 3’ end of the DNA Strand. Not only does DNA polymerase add nucleotides to a DNA strand it can also act somewhat as a “proof reader”. It can pause the replication process to fix mistakes that can occur during DNA replication. Once the sequencing mistake is identified DNA polymerase can get rid of the nucleotides and continue on with the replication process. DNA polymerase functions in many different processes