Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

TERT

Telomerase reverse transcriptase

Also known as: EST2, hEST2, TCS1, TERT_HUMAN, TP2, TRT

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
O14746
Gene
TERT
Ensembl
ENSG00000164362
Chromosome
5
Canonical length
1132 aa
Protein class
Cancer-related genes, Disease related genes, Enzymes, Human disease related genes, Potential drug targets, Predicted membrane proteins
Subcellular location
Nucleoplasm,Nuclear speckles,Cytosol

OverviewNCBI Gene

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein polymerase that maintains telomere ends by addition of the telomere repeat TTAGGG. The enzyme consists of a protein component with reverse transcriptase activity, encoded by this gene, and an RNA component which serves as a template for the telomere repeat. Telomerase expression plays a role in cellular senescence, as it is normally repressed in postnatal somatic cells resulting in progressive shortening of telomeres. Deregulation of telomerase expression in somatic cells may be involved in oncogenesis. Studies in mouse suggest that telomerase also participates in chromosomal repair, since de novo synthesis of telomere repeats may occur at double-stranded breaks. Alternatively spliced variants encoding different isoforms of telomerase reverse transcriptase have been identified; the full-length sequence of some variants has not been determined. Alternative splicing at this locus is thought to be one mechanism of regulation of telomerase activity. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

1132 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>O14746|TERT
     1  MPRAPRCRAV RSLLRSHYRE VLPLATFVRR LGPQGWRLVQ RGDPAAFRAL VAQCLVCVPW
    61  DARPPPAAPS FRQVSCLKEL VARVLQRLCE RGAKNVLAFG FALLDGARGG PPEAFTTSVR
   121  SYLPNTVTDA LRGSGAWGLL LRRVGDDVLV HLLARCALFV LVAPSCAYQV CGPPLYQLGA
   181  ATQARPPPHA SGPRRRLGCE RAWNHSVREA GVPLGLPAPG ARRRGGSASR SLPLPKRPRR
   241  GAAPEPERTP VGQGSWAHPG RTRGPSDRGF CVVSPARPAE EATSLEGALS GTRHSHPSVG
   301  RQHHAGPPST SRPPRPWDTP CPPVYAETKH FLYSSGDKEQ LRPSFLLSSL RPSLTGARRL
   361  VETIFLGSRP WMPGTPRRLP RLPQRYWQMR PLFLELLGNH AQCPYGVLLK THCPLRAAVT
   421  PAAGVCAREK PQGSVAAPEE EDTDPRRLVQ LLRQHSSPWQ VYGFVRACLR RLVPPGLWGS
   481  RHNERRFLRN TKKFISLGKH AKLSLQELTW KMSVRDCAWL RRSPGVGCVP AAEHRLREEI
   541  LAKFLHWLMS VYVVELLRSF FYVTETTFQK NRLFFYRKSV WSKLQSIGIR QHLKRVQLRE
   601  LSEAEVRQHR EARPALLTSR LRFIPKPDGL RPIVNMDYVV GARTFRREKR AERLTSRVKA
   661  LFSVLNYERA RRPGLLGASV LGLDDIHRAW RTFVLRVRAQ DPPPELYFVK VDVTGAYDTI
   721  PQDRLTEVIA SIIKPQNTYC VRRYAVVQKA AHGHVRKAFK SHVSTLTDLQ PYMRQFVAHL
   781  QETSPLRDAV VIEQSSSLNE ASSGLFDVFL RFMCHHAVRI RGKSYVQCQG IPQGSILSTL
   841  LCSLCYGDME NKLFAGIRRD GLLLRLVDDF LLVTPHLTHA KTFLRTLVRG VPEYGCVVNL
   901  RKTVVNFPVE DEALGGTAFV QMPAHGLFPW CGLLLDTRTL EVQSDYSSYA RTSIRASLTF
   961  NRGFKAGRNM RRKLFGVLRL KCHSLFLDLQ VNSLQTVCTN IYKILLLQAY RFHACVLQLP
  1021  FHQQVWKNPT FFLRVISDTA SLCYSILKAK NAGMSLGAKG AAGPLPSEAV QWLCHQAFLL
  1081  KLTRHRVTYV PLLGSLRTAQ TQLSRKLPGT TLTALEAAAN PALPSDFKTI LD

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against TERT can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Intracellular
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.32
Highest tissue expression
0.2 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • testis: 0.2 nTPM
  • duodenum: 0.1 nTPM
  • lymph node: 0.1 nTPM
  • thymus: 0.1 nTPM
  • adipose tissue: 0 nTPM
  • adrenal gland: 0 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • differentiating spermatogonia: 12 nCPM
  • early primary spermatocytes: 11 nCPM
  • undifferentiated spermatogonia: 9.6 nCPM
  • plasma cells: 5.4 nCPM
  • paneth cells: 3.9 nCPM
  • enteric transient amplifying cells: 2.8 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 0 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • amygdala: 0 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 0 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 0 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 0 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about TERT.

Disease | AllUniProt

Conditions TERT is implicated in, by any mechanism.

Disease | GeneticClinVar

166 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 3,784 ClinVar records.

Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.

Disease | ImmuneIEDB

Conditions an epitope on TERT was assayed in.

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
0.29
gnomAD pLI
0.99
gnomAD missense Z
4.88
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.05
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 5% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

  • Reverse transcriptase domain
  • DNA/RNA polymerase superfamily
  • Telomerase reverse transcriptase
  • Telomerase ribonucleoprotein complex - RNA-binding domain
  • Telomerase reverse transcriptase, C-terminal extension
  • Telomerase ribonucleoprotein complex - RNA binding domain
  • Telomerase reverse transcriptase, C-terminal extension

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of TERT in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads TERT as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against TERT could matter depends on whether native TERT is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

TERT is annotated as predominantly intracellular. Intracellular proteins are common autoantibody markers, becoming visible to the immune system after cell injury or altered processing, but are usually markers of disease rather than direct drivers.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label TERT as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/TERT. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...