Except, they seem to have that in yeast, which are distinguished by a need to reproduce fast like tumor cells. If they have been ignored all this time, maybe they are just a normal part of eukaryote biology?
In the nematode world, we create extrachromosomal arrays of transgenes by injecting plasmids into the worm’s gonad that then get passed down to progeny; the expression we see is almost always variable and mosaic and not every cell ends up showing it.
I would guess this technique used for decades in the field is actually an induced version of these!
The presence of telomerase prevents telomere shortening in cancer cells and gives the ability to divide an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate.
But the aging process is not reversed, so a multicellular complex organism would eventually die.
* Scientists discovered a relationship between cancer and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in 1965, but considered ecDNAs rare and not worth investigating.
* Researchers subsequently learned that ecDNAs are common and central to the behavior of some of the most aggressive forms of cancer, enabling remarkably elevated levels of oncogene transcription, creating new gene regulatory interactions, and providing a powerful mechanism for rapid change that can drive very high oncogene copy numbers or allow cancer cells to resist treatment.
* Like Ptolemy’s flawed map that placed Earth at the center of the solar system, cancer researchers today may be analyzing genes and diseases with flawed maps.
Related Articles:
* https://www.the-scientist.com/features/cancer-may-be-driven-...
* https://chemh.stanford.edu/news/shining-light-extrachromosom...