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PMID: 8799140 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Telomeric repeats (TTAGGC)n are sufficient for chromosome capping function in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 93 ·No. 17 ·1996-08-20 ·Pages 8983-8

Wicky C, Villeneuve AM, Lauper N, Codourey L, Tobler H, Müller F

Abstract

Telomeres are specialized structures located at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes that ensure their complete replication and protect them from fusion and degradation. We report here the characterization of the telomeres of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We show that the chromosomes terminate in 4-9 kb of tandem repeats of the sequence TTAGGC. Furthermore, we have isolated clones corresponding to 11 of the 12 C. elegans telomeres. Their subtelomeric sequences are all different from each other, demonstrating that the terminal TTAGGC repeats are sufficient for general chromosomal capping functions. Finally, we demonstrate that the me8 meiotic mutant, which is defective in X chromosome crossing over and segregation, bears a terminal deficiency, that was healed by the addition of telomeric repeats, presumably by the activity of a telomerase enzyme. The 11 cloned telomeres represent an important advance for the completion of the physical map and for the determination of the entire sequence of the C. elegans genome.

MeSH Terms
Animals Base Sequence Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics Chromosome Mapping Chromosomes/metabolism Cloning, Molecular DNA, Ribosomal/genetics Molecular Sequence Data Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid Sequence Analysis, DNA Sequence Deletion Telomere/genetics
Chemicals
DNA, Ribosomal
Authors & Affiliations
6 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Wicky C
Institute of Zoology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Villeneuve A M
Lauper N
Codourey L
Tobler H
Müller F
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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.93.17.8983
Published
1996-08-20
Pages
8983-8
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC38581
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
X97521, X97522, X97523, X97524, X97525, X97526, X97527, X97528, X97529, X97530, X97531, X97532, X97533, X98717
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.93.17.8983 PMC Full Text View journal details
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