Skip to main content
PMC home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1991 Jan 11;19(1):149–154. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.1.149

Structural and transcriptional analysis of a human subtelomeric repeat.

J F Cheng 1, C L Smith 1, C R Cantor 1
PMCID: PMC333545  PMID: 2011494

Abstract

A human subtelomeric repeat (designated as the HST repeat) has been isolated and characterized from a yeast artificial chromosome containing one human telomere. This repeat is located immediately adjacent to the telomeric T2AG3 repeats at the extreme termini of the human chromosomes. The DNA sequence of 3.6 kb of the HST repeat has been determined. The HST repeat spans over 3.6 kb in length, and contains one evolutionarily conserved CpG-rich region. The copy number of the HST repeat varies among telomeres. Genomic hybridization experiments suggest that the HST repeat consists of two distinct segments, and the distal portions of the HST repeat are also distributed elsewhere in the genome. In HeLa cells, the HST repeat sequence appears to be transcribed into a 6 kb polyadenylated RNA and a variety of non-polyadenylated RNA species.

Full text

PDF
152

Images in this article

151Image
on p.151
152Image
on p.152

Selected References

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

  1. Allshire R. C., Dempster M., Hastie N. D. Human telomeres contain at least three types of G-rich repeat distributed non-randomly. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Jun 26;17(12):4611–4627. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.12.4611. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. 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]
  3. Aviv H., Leder P. Purification of biologically active globin messenger RNA by chromatography on oligothymidylic acid-cellulose. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1972 Jun;69(6):1408–1412. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.6.1408. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Berman J., Tachibana C. Y., Tye B. K. Identification of a telomere-binding activity from yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jun;83(11):3713–3717. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.11.3713. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bird A. P. CpG-rich islands and the function of DNA methylation. Nature. 1986 May 15;321(6067):209–213. doi: 10.1038/321209a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. 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]
  7. Borst P., Cross G. A. Molecular basis for trypanosome antigenic variation. Cell. 1982 Jun;29(2):291–303. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90146-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Borst P., Frasch A. C., Bernards A., Van der Ploeg L. H., Hoeijmakers J. H., Arnberg A. C., Cross G. A. DNA rearrangements involving the genes for variant antigens in Trypanosoma brucei. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1981;45(Pt 2):935–943. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1981.045.01.110. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Brown W. R., MacKinnon P. J., Villasanté A., Spurr N., Buckle V. J., Dobson M. J. Structure and polymorphism of human telomere-associated DNA. Cell. 1990 Oct 5;63(1):119–132. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90293-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Brown W. R. Molecular cloning of human telomeres in yeast. Nature. 1989 Apr 27;338(6218):774–776. doi: 10.1038/338774a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Carlson M., Celenza J. L., Eng F. J. Evolution of the dispersed SUC gene family of Saccharomyces by rearrangements of chromosome telomeres. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Nov;5(11):2894–2902. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.11.2894. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Cheng J. F., Smith C. L., Cantor C. R. Isolation and characterization of a human telomere. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Aug 11;17(15):6109–6127. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.15.6109. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Cooke H. J., Brown W. R., Rappold G. A. Hypervariable telomeric sequences from the human sex chromosomes are pseudoautosomal. Nature. 1985 Oct 24;317(6039):687–692. doi: 10.1038/317687a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Corcoran L. M., Thompson J. K., Walliker D., Kemp D. J. Homologous recombination within subtelomeric repeat sequences generates chromosome size polymorphisms in P. falciparum. Cell. 1988 Jun 3;53(5):807–813. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90097-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Cross S. H., Allshire R. C., McKay S. J., McGill N. I., Cooke H. J. Cloning of human telomeres by complementation in yeast. Nature. 1989 Apr 27;338(6218):771–774. doi: 10.1038/338771a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Doggett N. A., Cheng J. F., Smith C. L., Cantor C. R. The Huntington disease locus is most likely within 325 kilobases of the chromosome 4p telomere. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Dec;86(24):10011–10014. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.24.10011. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Feinberg A. P., Vogelstein B. A technique for radiolabeling DNA restriction endonuclease fragments to high specific activity. Anal Biochem. 1983 Jul 1;132(1):6–13. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(83)90418-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Glisin V., Crkvenjakov R., Byus C. Ribonucleic acid isolated by cesium chloride centrifugation. Biochemistry. 1974 Jun 4;13(12):2633–2637. doi: 10.1021/bi00709a025. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Gottschling D. E., Zakian V. A. Telomere proteins: specific recognition and protection of the natural termini of Oxytricha macronuclear DNA. Cell. 1986 Oct 24;47(2):195–205. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90442-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. 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]
  21. Horowitz H., Thorburn P., Haber J. E. Rearrangements of highly polymorphic regions near telomeres of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Nov;4(11):2509–2517. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.11.2509. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Kozak C. A., Lawrence J. B., Ruddle F. H. A sequential staining technique for the chromosomal analysis of the interspecific mouse/hamster and mouse/human somatic cell hybrids. Exp Cell Res. 1977 Mar 1;105(1):109–117. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(77)90156-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Lehrach H., Diamond D., Wozney J. M., Boedtker H. RNA molecular weight determinations by gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions, a critical reexamination. Biochemistry. 1977 Oct 18;16(21):4743–4751. doi: 10.1021/bi00640a033. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. MacDonald M. E., Anderson M. A., Gilliam T. C., Tranejaerg L., Carpenter N. J., Magenis E., Hayden M. R., Healey S. T., Bonner T. I., Gusella J. F. A somatic cell hybrid panel for localizing DNA segments near the Huntington's disease gene. Genomics. 1987 Sep;1(1):29–34. doi: 10.1016/0888-7543(87)90101-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. MacDonald M. E., Haines J. L., Zimmer M., Cheng S. V., Youngman S., Whaley W. L., Wexler N., Bucan M., Allitto B. A., Smith B. Recombination events suggest potential sites for the Huntington's disease gene. Neuron. 1989 Aug;3(2):183–190. doi: 10.1016/0896-6273(89)90031-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. 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]
  27. Murray A. W., Claus T. E., Szostak J. W. Characterization of two telomeric DNA processing reactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Nov;8(11):4642–4650. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.11.4642. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Raghuraman M. K., Cech T. R. Assembly and self-association of oxytricha telomeric nucleoprotein complexes. Cell. 1989 Nov 17;59(4):719–728. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90018-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. 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]
  30. Rubin G. M. Isolation of a telomeric DNA sequence from Drosophila melanogaster. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1978;42(Pt 2):1041–1046. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1978.042.01.104. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Sen D., Gilbert W. Formation of parallel four-stranded complexes by guanine-rich motifs in DNA and its implications for meiosis. Nature. 1988 Jul 28;334(6180):364–366. doi: 10.1038/334364a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Ullrich A., Shine J., Chirgwin J., Pictet R., Tischer E., Rutter W. J., Goodman H. M. Rat insulin genes: construction of plasmids containing the coding sequences. Science. 1977 Jun 17;196(4296):1313–1319. doi: 10.1126/science.325648. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Van Keuren M. L., Hart I. M., Kao F. T., Neve R. L., Bruns G. A., Kurnit D. M., Patterson D. A somatic cell hybrid with a single human chromosome 22 corrects the defect in the CHO mutant (Ade-I) lacking adenylosuccinase activity. Cytogenet Cell Genet. 1987;44(2-3):142–147. doi: 10.1159/000132358. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Warren S. T., Zhang F., Licameli G. R., Peters J. F. The fragile X site in somatic cell hybrids: an approach for molecular cloning of fragile sites. Science. 1987 Jul 24;237(4813):420–423. doi: 10.1126/science.3603029. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Wasmuth J. J., Carlock L. R., Smith B., Immken L. L. A cell hybrid and recombinant DNA library that facilitate identification of polymorphic loci in the vicinity of the Huntington disease gene. Am J Hum Genet. 1986 Sep;39(3):397–403. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Williamson J. R., Raghuraman M. K., Cech T. R. Monovalent cation-induced structure of telomeric DNA: the G-quartet model. Cell. 1989 Dec 1;59(5):871–880. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90610-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  38. de Lange T., Shiue L., Myers R. M., Cox D. R., Naylor S. L., Killery A. M., Varmus H. E. Structure and variability of human chromosome ends. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Feb;10(2):518–527. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.2.518. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES