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PMID: 2549507 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Isolation and characterization of a human telomere.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 17 ·No. 15 ·1989-08-11 ·Pages 6109-27

Cheng JF, Smith CL, Cantor CR

Abstract

A method is described that allows cloning of human telomeres in S. cerevisiae by joining human telomeric restriction fragments to yeast artificial chromosome halves. The resulting chimeric yeast-human chromosomes propagate as true linear chromosomes, demonstrating that the human telomere structure is capable of functioning in yeast and suggesting that telomere functions are evolutionarily conserved between yeast and human. One cloned human telomere, yHT1, contains 4 kb of human genomic DNA sequence next to the tandemly repeating TTAGGG hexanucleotide. Genomic hybridizations using both cloned DNA and TTAGGG repeats have revealed a common structural organization of human telomeres. This 4 kb of genomic DNA sequence is present in most, but not all, human telomeres, suggesting that the region is not involved in crucial chromosome-specific functions. However, the extent of common features among the human telomeres and possible similarities in organization with yeast telomeres suggest that this region may play a role in general chromosome behavior such as telomere-telomere interactions. Unlike the simple telomeric TTAGGG repeats, our cloned human genomic DNA sequence does not cross-hybridize with rodent DNA. Thus, this clone allows the identifications of the terminal restriction fragments of specific human chromosomes in human-rodent hybrid cells.

MeSH Terms
Animals Bacterial Proteins Cell Line Chromosome Mapping Chromosomes, Fungal Chromosomes, Human/ultrastructure Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21/ultrastructure Cloning, Molecular Cricetinae DNA/genetics DNA Probes DNA Restriction Enzymes Deoxyribonuclease BamHI Deoxyribonuclease EcoRI Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific Genome, Human Humans Hybrid Cells Nucleic Acid Hybridization Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genetics Transformation, Genetic
Chemicals
Bacterial Proteins DNA Probes DNA DNA Restriction Enzymes Deoxyribonuclease BamHI Deoxyribonuclease EcoRI BglII endonuclease Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific GCGGCCGC-specific type II deoxyribonucleases
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Cheng J F
Department of Genetics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
Smith C L
Cantor C R
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
0305-1048
DOI
10.1093/nar/17.15.6109
Published
1989-08-11
Pages
6109-27
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC318265
Subset
IM
Grants
NCI NIH HHS · CA39782 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · GM14825 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/17.15.6109 PMC Full Text View journal details
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