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PMID: 6324075 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Telomere conversion in trypanosomes.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 11 ·No. 23 ·1983-12-10 ·Pages 8149-65

De Lange T, Kooter JM, Michels PA, Borst P

Abstract

Activation of the gene coding for variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) 118 in Trypanosoma brucei proceeds via a duplicative transposition to a telomeric expression site. The resulting active expression-linked extra copy (ELC) is usually flanked by DNA that lacks sites for most restriction enzymes and that is thought to interfere with the cloning of the ELC as recombinant DNA in Escherichia coli. We have circumvented this problem by cloning an aberrant 118 ELC gene, flanked at the 3'-side by at least 1 kb DNA, that contains restriction enzyme sites. Our analysis shows that this DNA and the 3'-end of the 118 ELC gene are derived from another VSG gene (1.1006) that is permanently located at a telomeric position. We propose that the 3'-end of the 1.1006 gene and (all of) its 3' flanking sequence moved to the expression site by a telomere conversion. Such a telomere conversion can also account for the appearance of an extra copy of the 1.1006 gene detected in a sub-population of our trypanosome strain.

MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Sequence Animals Base Sequence Cloning, Molecular DNA Restriction Enzymes DNA, Recombinant/metabolism Escherichia coli/genetics Genes Glycoproteins/genetics Membrane Proteins/genetics Trypanosoma/genetics Trypanosoma brucei brucei/genetics Variant Surface Glycoproteins, Trypanosoma
Chemicals
DNA, Recombinant Glycoproteins Membrane Proteins Variant Surface Glycoproteins, Trypanosoma DNA Restriction Enzymes
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
De Lange T
Kooter J M
Michels P A
Borst P
References (33)
33 references, click to expand
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
0305-1048
DOI
10.1093/nar/11.23.8149
Published
1983-12-10
Pages
8149-65
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC326572
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
X00192, X00193, X00194
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/11.23.8149 PMC Full Text View journal details
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