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PMID: 8159768 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

A conserved sequence motif within the exceptionally diverse telomeric sequences of budding yeasts.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 91 ·No. 8 ·1994-04-12 ·Pages 3453-7

McEachern MJ, Blackburn EH

Abstract

Telomeric DNA sequences have generally been found to be remarkably conserved in evolution, typically consisting of repeated, very short sequence units containing clusters of G residues. Recently however the telomeric DNA of the asexual yeast Candida albicans was shown to consist of much longer repeat units. Here we report the identification of seven additional telomeric sequences from sexual and asexual budding yeast species. The telomeric repeat units from this group of relatively closely related species show more phylogenetic diversity in length (8-25 bp), sequence, and composition than has been seen previously throughout a wide phylogenetic range of other eukaryotes. We also show that certain strains of the asexual diploid species Candida tropicalis have two forms of telomeric repeats, which appear to differ by a single base pair. Despite their great diversity, the telomeric repeat units of C. albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and all of the species we have examined in this report share a conserved approximately 6-bp motif of T and G residues resembling more typical telomeric sequences.

MeSH Terms
Base Sequence DNA, Fungal/genetics Molecular Sequence Data Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid Sequence Alignment Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid Telomere/chemistry Yeasts/genetics
Chemicals
DNA, Fungal
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
McEachern M J
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco 94143.
Blackburn E H
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.91.8.3453
Published
1994-04-12
Pages
3453-7
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC43595
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · GM 26259 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.91.8.3453 PMC Full Text View journal details
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