4 ms·

I'm not a biologist, but I believe what you're talking about is telomerase?

• dillydogg 3y ago
  Telomeres are just repeats at the end of chromosomes to allow for replication. They aren't directly involved in replication fidelity beyond allowing for replication to proceed. I guess protecting genes near chromosome termini but that's different than the mutations you would expect in cancer.
  • herval 3y ago
    my understanding is cancer gets more prevalent when the telomeres get old (short?), since it leads to more mutations/botched replication?
    • dillydogg 3y ago
      I'm sorry for the delay, but this actually isn't quite right. Short telomere syndromes are not associated with cancer. In fact, it is long telomeres that have a strong association with cancer (largely because aberrantly activating telomerase can drive cancer development.) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22965356/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22965356/ for more on short telomere syndromes.