Expression data between WT and G3/4 Terc KO mouse ESCs during differentiation

Mammalian telomeres are formed by tandem repeats of the TTAGGG sequence, and shorten with each round of cell division in the absence of telomerase. Telomere shortening and dysfunction has been implicated in the pathology of several age-related diseases and premature ageing syndromes. Telomerase is important for telomere length maintenance. Telomerase RNA component, also known as TERC, is a component of telomerase. Terc knockout leads to telomerase deficiency and telomere shortening. Heterozygous telomerase-deficient (Terc+/-) mice were housed and bred for homozygous generation. ESC lines were generated with high efficiency from wild-type (WT, Terc+/+), heterozygous (Het, Terc+/-) and early- to late-generation (G1, G3 and G4) Terc-/- mouse blastocysts. Telomeres were shorter in Terc+/- ES cells than in WT ES cells, and further shortened from G1 to G4 Terc-/- ES cells. We took advantage of ES cell lines with various telomere lengths to investigate roles of telomere length on differentiation capacity of ES cells. We found that telomere length, but not telomerase activity, is required for differentiation of ES cells into epidermis.

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