REVIEW article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Biotechnology
Plant Telomere Biology: Advances in the Functional Mechanisms and Regulation of Senescence
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Plateau Climate Change and Corresponding Ecological and Environmental Effects, Xining, China
- 2Qinghai Institute of Technology, Xining, China
- 3Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
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Telomeres comprise telomeric DNA repeats and proteins that act as helmets to protect plant and animal genomes. Telomere length is a crucial factor for normal plant development and senescence; it determines the number of cell divisions and controls cellular senescence and death. Current research on the role of telomeres in protecting genes and regulating cellular senescence has mostly focused on animal and human medicine; knowledge of the functional mechanisms of plant telomeres and their regulation of plant senescence remains fragmentary. Despite recent unexpected results in unraveling the sequence and structure of plant telomeres and the mechanisms of their function, many questions remain about plant telomere homeostasis and the mechanisms of senescence regulation. In this review, we summarize the basic properties of telomeres and their functional mechanisms and review their effects and mechanisms of action during plant senescence. At the same time, an outlook onto future research applications of telomere-regulated senescence in plants is presented to provide new ideas for future comprehensive revelation of telomere-regulated mechanisms of plant senescence.
Keywords: plant, telomere length, telomerase activity, senescence, Cell Death
Received: 26 Aug 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 A, Zhang, Zhang and Dong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yun A, 1421538664@qq.com
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