Genome-wide analysis of TERC occupancy in MRC5 fibroblast cells by ChIRP-seq

TERC is the core subunit of telomerase which is responsible for adding telomeric sequences to the telomere ends. Besides being the RNA temple of telomerase, TERC is a typical Lnc RNA and ubiquitously expressed in normal somatic cells without telomerase activity. It is very likely that TERC has other, yet to be discovered functions in normal somatic cells independent of telomerase activity. Identifying the genomic occupancy of TERC helps to understand its functional mechanism on chromosomal DNA. Then, we analyzed the genome occupancy of TERC in MRC5 fibroblast cells that is without telomerase activity by ChIRP-seq, and found that there was not apparent enrichment of TERC on telomere sequences in normal somatic cells, but showed a significant enrichment on gene promoters/transcription start sites. This study provides a mechanistic insight of TERC on transcriptional regulation in normal somatic cells. Examination of TERC genomic occupancy in fibroblast cells that is telomerase negative