Retrotransposon-mediated Restoration of Chlorella Telomeres: Accumulation of Zepp Retrotransposons at Termini of Newly Formed Minichromosomes

Overview

Journal Nucleic Acids Res

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Biochemistry

Date 2003 Jul 31

PMID 12888526

Citations 6

Authors

Yoshitaka Yamamoto

Yuhki Fujimoto

Ryota Arai

Makoto Fujie

Shoji Usami

Takashi Yamada

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

To elucidate the contribution of LINE-like retrotransposon Zepp elements to the formation and maintenance of chromosomal telomeres, newly formed minichromosomes in irradiated Chlorella vulgaris cells were isolated and structurally characterized. A minichromosome (miniV4) of approximately 700 kb in size contained a Zepp cluster taking the place of the telomeric repeats on one terminus, whereas the other end of this chromosome consisted of canonical telomeric repeats. The Zepp copies in this cluster were in a tandem array with their poly(A) tails towards the centromere. Another minichromosome Y32 ( approximately 400 kb in size) was shown to have several copies of Zepp elements on both termini. On the right arm terminus, two copies of Zepp were found in a tandem array with poly(A) tracts facing towards the chromosomal end. The poly(A) tail and the 3'-end of approximately 400 bp of the distal copy were replaced by the telomeric repeats. On the 5'-side of the proximal copy was another Zepp element in the reverse orientation. These newly formed telomeric structures are very similar to those previously found in the left arm of chromosome I and the terminus of an unidentified chromosome and support the model of Zepp-mediated restoration and maintenance of Chlorella telomeres.

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