Active telomerase during leaf growth and increase of age in plants from Agave tequilana var. Azul.

In plants, previous studies show that telomerase activity contributes to the maintenance of telomeric length for the proper development of organs and tissues. In this work, we investigated telomerase activity in A. tequilana during several years of cultivation. We found that during growth of the leaf there are two crucial phases: (1) the onset of cell elongation in 3 years and (2) differentiation of vascular bundles in 6 years. This coincides with the ages where the highest telomerase activity is seen. Therefore indicates that telomerase is associated with cellular activities such as; elongation, division, and cell differentiation. Likewise, we detected high activity during the period of vegetative growth, indicating that telomerase also contributes to telomeric maintenance on the leaf in A. tequilana.