Telomere maintenance by intracellular signals: New kid on the block?

This article presents information related to telomere maintenance by intracellular signals. The pervasive inositol phosphate signaling family includes a specialized subgroup with "high-energy" pyrophosphate groups that turn over rapidly. Telomeres are the nucleoprotein complexes that occur at the ends of eukaryotic linear chromosomes. They consist of long, repetitive DNA sequences that attract a number of sequence and structure-specific binding proteins. Without telomere protection, the activation of DNA damage response pathways by chromosomal ends would provoke cell cycle arrest, senescence or apoptosis.