Skip to main content
NCBI 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
. 1982 May;79(10):3255–3259. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.10.3255

Inverted terminal repeats are added to genes during macronuclear development in Oxytricha nova.

R E Boswell, L A Klobutcher, D M Prescott
PMCID: PMC346394  PMID: 6808504

Abstract

In the hypotrichous ciliate Oxytricha nova all of the macronuclear DNA is in the form of low molecular weight, gene-sized molecules with an average size of 2,200 base pairs. These molecules are produced during macronuclear development by excision from micronuclear chromosomes. All, or nearly all, of the small macronuclear DNA molecules possess an inverted terminal repeat sequence consisting of 5' C4A4 3' repeats. The hypothesis that this terminal sequence serves as a recognition signal for excision of gene-sized molecules from chromosomes has been tested. A sequence containing the C4A4 repeat has been isolated and used to screen clones of micronuclear DNA for the presence of the repeat sequence. The results show that the intact repeated C4A4 sequence is not present at the ends of macronuclear sequences as they exist in the micronuclear chromosomes. Therefore, the entire terminal repeat is not a recognition sequence for gene excision but must be added to the ends of gene-sized molecules during or after the excision process.

Full text

PDF
3255

Images in this article

3257Image
on p.3257
3257Image
on p.3257
3257Image
on p.3257
3258Image
on p.3258
3258Image
on p.3258

Selected References

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

  1. Becker A., Gold M. Isolation of the bacteriophage lambda A-gene protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Feb;72(2):581–585. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.2.581. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Benton W. D., Davis R. W. Screening lambdagt recombinant clones by hybridization to single plaques in situ. Science. 1977 Apr 8;196(4286):180–182. doi: 10.1126/science.322279. [DOI] [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. Early P., Hood L. Allelic exclusion and nonproductive immunoglobulin gene rearrangements. Cell. 1981 Apr;24(1):1–3. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90492-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Katzen A. L., Cann G. M., Blackburn E. H. Sequence-specific fragmentation of macronuclear DNA in a holotrichous ciliate. Cell. 1981 May;24(2):313–320. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90321-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. 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]
  7. Kühn S., Fritz H. J., Starlinger P. Close vicinity of IS1 integration sites in the leader sequence of the gal operon of E. coli. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Jan 2;167(3):235–241. doi: 10.1007/BF00267414. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Lacy E., Maniatis T. The nucleotide sequence of a rabbit beta-globin pseudogene. Cell. 1980 Sep;21(2):545–553. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90492-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lauth M. R., Spear B. B., Heumann J., Prescott D. M. DNA of ciliated protozoa: DNA sequence diminution during macronuclear development of Oxytricha. Cell. 1976 Jan;7(1):67–74. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(76)90256-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lawn R. M., Heumann J. M., Herrick G., Prescott D. M. The gene-size DNA molecules in Oxytricha. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1978;42(Pt 1):483–492. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1978.042.01.051. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Loening U. E. The determination of the molecular weight of ribonucleic acid by polyacrylamide-gel electrophresis. The effects of changes in conformation. Biochem J. 1969 Jun;113(1):131–138. doi: 10.1042/bj1130131. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Maniatis T., Hardison R. C., Lacy E., Lauer J., O'Connell C., Quon D., Sim G. K., Efstratiadis A. The isolation of structural genes from libraries of eucaryotic DNA. Cell. 1978 Oct;15(2):687–701. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(78)90036-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Maniatis T., Jeffrey A., Kleid D. G. Nucleotide sequence of the rightward operator of phage lambda. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Mar;72(3):1184–1188. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.3.1184. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Maxam A. M., Gilbert W. Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):499–560. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65059-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Oka Y., Shiota S., Nakai S., Nishida Y., Okubo S. Inverted terminal repeat sequence in the macronuclear DNA of Stylonychia pustulata. Gene. 1980 Sep;10(4):301–306. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(80)90150-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Proudfoot N. J., Maniatis T. The structure of a human alpha-globin pseudogene and its relationship to alpha-globin gene duplication. Cell. 1980 Sep;21(2):537–544. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90491-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Rigby P. W., Dieckmann M., Rhodes C., Berg P. Labeling deoxyribonucleic acid to high specific activity in vitro by nick translation with DNA polymerase I. J Mol Biol. 1977 Jun 15;113(1):237–251. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(77)90052-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sutcliffe J. G. Complete nucleotide sequence of the Escherichia coli plasmid pBR322. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1979;43(Pt 1):77–90. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1979.043.01.013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Swanton M. T., Greslin A. F., Prescott D. M. Arrangement of coding and non-coding sequences in the DNA molecules coding for rRNAs in Oxytricha sp. DNA of ciliated protozoa. VII. Chromosoma. 1980;77(2):203–215. doi: 10.1007/BF00329545. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Swanton M. T., Heumann J. M., Prescott D. M. Gene-sized DNA molecules of the macronuclei in three species of hypotrichs: size distributions and absence of nicks. DNA of ciliated protozoa. VIII. Chromosoma. 1980;77(2):217–227. doi: 10.1007/BF00329546. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Tu C. P., Cohen S. N. 3'-end labeling of DNA with [alpha-32P]cordycepin-5'-triphosphate. Gene. 1980 Jul;10(2):177–183. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(80)90135-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. 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]

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