Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1989 Sep;86(18):7049–7053. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.18.7049

Conservation of the human telomere sequence (TTAGGG)n among vertebrates.

J Meyne 1, R L Ratliff 1, R K Moyzis 1
PMCID: PMC297991  PMID: 2780561

Abstract

To determine the evolutionary origin of the human telomere sequence (TTAGGG)n, biotinylated oligodeoxynucleotides of this sequence were hybridized to metaphase spreads from 91 different species, including representative orders of bony fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Under stringent hybridization conditions, fluorescent signals were detected at the telomeres of all chromosomes, in all 91 species. The conservation of the (TTAGGG)n sequence and its telomeric location, in species thought to share a common ancestor over 400 million years ago, strongly suggest that this sequence is the functional vertebrate telomere.

Full text

PDF
7051

Images in this article

7052Image
on p.7052
7052Image
on p.7052
7052Image
on p.7052
7052Image
on p.7052

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allshire R. C., Gosden J. R., Cross S. H., Cranston G., Rout D., Sugawara N., Szostak J. W., Fantes P. A., Hastie N. D. Telomeric repeat from T. thermophila cross hybridizes with human telomeres. Nature. 1988 Apr 14;332(6165):656–659. doi: 10.1038/332656a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baroin A., Prat A., Caron F. Telomeric site position heterogeneity in macronuclear DNA of Paramecium primaurelia. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Feb 25;15(4):1717–1728. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.4.1717. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Blackburn E. H., Gall J. G. A tandemly repeated sequence at the termini of the extrachromosomal ribosomal RNA genes in Tetrahymena. J Mol Biol. 1978 Mar 25;120(1):33–53. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(78)90294-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Blackburn E. H. The molecular structure of centromeres and telomeres. Annu Rev Biochem. 1984;53:163–194. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.53.070184.001115. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Britten R. J. Rates of DNA sequence evolution differ between taxonomic groups. Science. 1986 Mar 21;231(4744):1393–1398. doi: 10.1126/science.3082006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Burke D. T., Carle G. F., Olson M. V. Cloning of large segments of exogenous DNA into yeast by means of artificial chromosome vectors. Science. 1987 May 15;236(4803):806–812. doi: 10.1126/science.3033825. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gray D. M., Ratliff R. L. Circular dichroism evidence for G-U and G-T base pairing in poly[r(G-U)] and poly[d(G-T)]. Biopolymers. 1977 Jun;16(6):1331–1342. doi: 10.1002/bip.1977.360160613. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gray D. M., Vaughan M. Circular dichroism spectra show that repeating dinucleotide DNAs may form helices in which every other base is looped out. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Aug 25;8(16):3695–3707. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.16.3695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Greider C. W., Blackburn E. H. A telomeric sequence in the RNA of Tetrahymena telomerase required for telomere repeat synthesis. Nature. 1989 Jan 26;337(6205):331–337. doi: 10.1038/337331a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Greider C. W., Blackburn E. H. Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts. Cell. 1985 Dec;43(2 Pt 1):405–413. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Greider C. W., Blackburn E. H. The telomere terminal transferase of Tetrahymena is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme with two kinds of primer specificity. Cell. 1987 Dec 24;51(6):887–898. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90576-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Henderson E., Hardin C. C., Walk S. K., Tinoco I., Jr, Blackburn E. H. Telomeric DNA oligonucleotides form novel intramolecular structures containing guanine-guanine base pairs. Cell. 1987 Dec 24;51(6):899–908. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90577-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Johnson E. M. A family of inverted repeat sequences and specific single-strand gaps at the termini of the Physarum rDNA palindrome. Cell. 1980 Dec;22(3):875–886. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90564-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Klobutcher L. A., Swanton M. T., Donini P., Prescott D. M. All gene-sized DNA molecules in four species of hypotrichs have the same terminal sequence and an unusual 3' terminus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 May;78(5):3015–3019. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.5.3015. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Morin G. B., Cech T. R. The telomeres of the linear mitochondrial DNA of Tetrahymena thermophila consist of 53 bp tandem repeats. Cell. 1986 Sep 12;46(6):873–883. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90069-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Moyzis R. K., Albright K. L., Bartholdi M. F., Cram L. S., Deaven L. L., Hildebrand C. E., Joste N. E., Longmire J. L., Meyne J., Schwarzacher-Robinson T. Human chromosome-specific repetitive DNA sequences: novel markers for genetic analysis. Chromosoma. 1987;95(6):375–386. doi: 10.1007/BF00333988. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Moyzis R. K., Buckingham J. M., Cram L. S., Dani M., Deaven L. L., Jones M. D., Meyne J., Ratliff R. L., Wu J. R. A highly conserved repetitive DNA sequence, (TTAGGG)n, present at the telomeres of human chromosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(18):6622–6626. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.18.6622. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Pluta A. F., Zakian V. A. Recombination occurs during telomere formation in yeast. Nature. 1989 Feb 2;337(6206):429–433. doi: 10.1038/337429a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Richards E. J., Ausubel F. M. Isolation of a higher eukaryotic telomere from Arabidopsis thaliana. Cell. 1988 Apr 8;53(1):127–136. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90494-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Riethman H. C., Moyzis R. K., Meyne J., Burke D. T., Olson M. V. Cloning human telomeric DNA fragments into Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a yeast-artificial-chromosome vector. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Aug;86(16):6240–6244. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.16.6240. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Shampay J., Szostak J. W., Blackburn E. H. DNA sequences of telomeres maintained in yeast. Nature. 1984 Jul 12;310(5973):154–157. doi: 10.1038/310154a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Skinner D. M., Beattie W. G., Blattner F. R., Stark B. P., Dahlberg J. E. The repeat sequence of a hermit crab satellite deoxyribonucleic acid is (-T-A-G-G-)n-(-A-T-C-C-)n. Biochemistry. 1974 Sep 10;13(19):3930–3937. doi: 10.1021/bi00716a018. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Weiner A. M. Eukaryotic nuclear telomeres: molecular fossils of the RNP world? Cell. 1988 Jan 29;52(2):155–158. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90501-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Yao M. C., Yao C. H. Repeated hexanucleotide C-C-C-C-A-A is present near free ends of macronuclear DNA of Tetrahymena. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Dec;78(12):7436–7439. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.12.7436. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Zahler A. M., Prescott D. M. Telomere terminal transferase activity in the hypotrichous ciliate Oxytricha nova and a model for replication of the ends of linear DNA molecules. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Jul 25;16(14B):6953–6972. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.14.6953. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES