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PMID: 8065312 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Unusual chromatin in human telomeres.

Molecular and cellular biology ·Vol. 14 ·No. 9 ·1994-09-00 ·Pages 5777-85

Tommerup H, Dousmanis A, de Lange T

Abstract

We report that human telomeres have an unusual chromatin structure characterized by diffuse micrococcal nuclease patterns. The altered chromatin manifested itself only in human telomeres that are relatively short (2 to 7 kb). In contrast, human and mouse telomeres with telomeric repeat arrays of 14 to 150 kb displayed a more canonical chromatin structure with extensive arrays of tightly packed nucleosomes. All telomeric nucleosomes showed a shorter repeat size than bulk nucleosomes, and telomeric mononucleosomal particles were found to be hypersensitive to micrococcal nuclease. However, telomeric nucleosomes were similar to bulk nucleosomes in the rate at which they sedimented through sucrose gradients. We speculate that mammalian telomeres have a bipartite structure with unusual chromatin near the telomere terminus and a more canonical nucleosomal organization in the proximal part of the telomere.

MeSH Terms
Animals Base Sequence Chromatin/ultrastructure Formaldehyde/chemistry Humans Mice Micrococcal Nuclease/metabolism Molecular Sequence Data Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid Telomere/ultrastructure
Chemicals
Chromatin Formaldehyde Micrococcal Nuclease
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Tommerup H
Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021.
Dousmanis A
de Lange T
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular and cellular biology
Abbr.
Mol Cell Biol
ISSN
0270-7306
DOI
10.1128/mcb.14.9.5777-5785.1994
Published
1994-09-00
Pages
5777-85
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8109087
PMCID
PMC359103
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · GM49046 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/mcb.14.9.5777-5785.1994 PMC Full Text View journal details
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