TERC and neoplasm: In agreement with this, control diet-fed G2 Terc−/− mice did not show tumors at their time of death and this was not modified by rapamycin treatment (Fig. 1f, g), thus ruling out that the decreased survival of rapamycin-treated G2 Terc−/− mice was due to loss of the tumor suppressor effect of short telomeres15,16.