Hypervariable ultra-long telomeres in mice

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 347; no. 6291; pp. 400 - 402
• Main Authors: Kipling, David, Cooke, Howard J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27.09.1990; Nature Publishing; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Aging; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Blood cells; Cell division; Chromatin. Chromosome; Chromosomes; Chromosomes - ultrastructure; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA - genetics; DNA Restriction Enzymes; Enzymes; Family studies; Fragments; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetics; Genomes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hybridization; letter; Male; Mice - genetics; Mice, Inbred BALB C - genetics; Mice, Inbred C57BL - genetics; Mice, Inbred CBA - genetics; Mice, Inbred DBA - genetics; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; multidisciplinary; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Oligonucleotides; Peripheral blood; Polymorphism, Genetic; Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; Rodents; Science; Telomerase; Telomeres; Vertebrates; Yeasts; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Restriction fragment length polymorphism; Mouse; Family study; Repeated sequence; DNA; Rodentia; Inheritance; Chromosome; Strain specificity; Telomer
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/347400a0

TELOMERE structure and behaviour is less well understood in vertebrates than it is in ciliates and yeasts (reviewed in ref. 1). Like all other eukaryotic chromosomes, those of vertebrates terminate in an array of a short repeated sequence. In vertebrates this sequence is (TTAGGG) n , as shown by in situ hybridization 2,3 . In humans, these terminal repeats are heterogeneous in length, averaging about 10 kilobases in blood cells 4–6 . Here we report the structure and inheritance of the terminal repeats present at mouse telomeres. The (TTAGGG) n tracts are many times larger than those present at human telomeres. Because of their constancy in length through somatic cell divisions, they are resolved as multiple discrete restriction fragments of up to 150 kilobases. Strikingly, this banding pattern is highly polymorphic within populations of inbred mice, suggesting an unusually high mutation rate. Indeed, although the banding pattern is inherited in a largely mendelian fashion, (TTAGGG) n tracts of new size appear frequently in family studies.