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Characterization of telomere-subtelomere junctions in Silene latifolia

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Abstract

Telomere-associated regions represent boundaries between the relatively homogeneous telomeres and the subtelomeres, which show much greater heterogeneity in chromatin structure and DNA composition. Although a major fraction of subtelomeres is usually formed by a limited number of highly repeated DNA sequence families, their mutual arrangement, attachment to telomeres and the presence of interspersed unique or low-copy-number sequences make these terminal domains chromosome specific. In this study, we describe the structures of junctions between telomeres and a major subtelomeric repeat of the plant Silene latifolia, X43.1. Our results show that on individual chromosome arms, X43.1 is attached to the telomere either directly at sites corresponding to nucleosome boundaries previously mapped in this sequence, or via other spacer sequences, both previously characterized and newly described ones. Sites of telomere junctions are non-random in all the telomere-associated sequences analysed. These data obtained at the molecular level have been verified using in situ hybridization to metaphase chromosomes and extended DNA fibres.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Ronald Hancock for critical reading of the manuscript and Mrs. Jedličková and Ms. Fridrichová for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic (Project MSM143100008) and the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Project 204/02/0027)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 61265, Brno, Czech Republic

    E. Sýkorová & J. Fajkus

  2. Department of Functional Genomics and Proteomics, Masaryk University Brno, Kotlářská, 61137, Brno, Czech Republic

    E. Sýkorová, M. Horáková & J. Fajkus

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, 565-0871, Suita, Osaka , Japan

    J. Cartagena & K. Fukui

Authors
  1. E. Sýkorová
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  2. J. Cartagena
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  3. M. Horáková
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  4. K. Fukui
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  5. J. Fajkus
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Correspondence to J. Fajkus.

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Communicated by M.-A. Grandbastien

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Sýkorová, E., Cartagena, J., Horáková, M. et al. Characterization of telomere-subtelomere junctions in Silene latifolia . Mol Gen Genomics 269, 13–20 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-003-0811-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-003-0811-9

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