Mammalian telomere biology

The review considers the function of the important chromosome regions telomeres in normal and immortal cells. Telomeres are dynamic nucleoprotein structures that cap the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, protecting them from degradation and end-to-end fusion. The functional state of telomeres depends on many interrelated parameters such as telomerase activity, the status of the telomere safety complex shelterin, and telomere-associated proteins (replication, recombination, DNA break repair factors, etc.). Special attention is paid to the mechanisms that control the telomere length in normal and immortal cells as well as in cells containing or lacking active telomerase. The features attributed to an alternative telomere length control are analyzed, in particular, in view of a recently discovered additional mechanism of telomere shortening by t-cycle trimming. The possibility of expressing both telomerase-dependent and recombinational pathways of telomere length control in normal mammalian cells is considered, as well as the role of shelterin proteins in choosing one of them to be dominant. The review additionally discusses the role of telomeres in the spatial organization of the nucleus during mitosis and meiosis and specific telomere organizations in mammals, including Iberian shrews with their unusual or rare chromosome structures.     

Techniques in plant telomere biology

The role model systems have played in understanding telomere biology has been enormous, and understanding has rapidly transferred to human telomere research. Most work using model organisms to study telomerase and nontelomerase-based telomere-maintenance systems has centered on yeasts, ciliates, and insects. But it is now timely to put considerably more effort into plant models for a number of reasons: (i) the rice and Arabidopsis genome sequencing projects make data mining possible; (ii) extensive collections of insertion mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana enable phenotypic effects of protein gene knockouts to be analyzed, including for those genes involved in telomere structure, function (including, for example, in meiosis), and maintenance; and (iii) the variability of plant telomeres is considerable and ranges from the telomerase-mediated synthesis of the Arabidopsis-type (TTTAGGG) and vertebrate-type (TTAGGG) repeats to sequences synthesized by telomerase-independent mechanism(s) that are still to be discovered. Here we describe how the understanding of telomere biology has been advanced by methods used to isolate telomeric sequences and prove that the putative sequences isolated are indeed telomeric. We show how assays designed to prove the activity of telomerase [e.g., telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP)] lead not only to an understanding of telomere structure and function, but also to the understanding of cell activity in development and in the cell cycle. We review how assays designed to reveal protein/protein and protein/nucleic acid interactions promote understanding of the structure and activities of plant telomeres. Together, the data are making significant contributions to telomere biology in general and could have medical implications.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

Plant biology

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in plant biology.     

MTV sings jubilation for telomere biology in Drosophila

Telomere protects the ends of linear chromosomes. Telomere dysfunction fuels genome instability that can lead to diseases such as cancer. For over 30 years, Drosophila has fascinated the field as the only major model organism that does not rely on the conserved telomerase enzyme for end protection. Instead of short DNA repeats at chromosome ends, Drosophila has domesticated retrotransposons. In addition, telomere protection can be entirely sequence-independent under normal laboratory conditions, again dissimilar to what has been established for telomerase-maintained systems. Despite these major differences, recent studies from us and others have revealed remarkable similarities between the 2 systems. In particular, with the identification of the MTV complex as an ssDNA binding complex essential for telomere integrity in Drosophila (Zhang et al. 2016 Plos Genetics), we have now established several universal principles that are intrinsic to chromosome extremities but independent of the underlying DNA sequences or the telomerase enzyme. Telomere studies in Drosophila will continue to yield fundamental insights that are instrumental to the understanding of the evolution of telomere and telomeric functions.     

植物虫瘿

虫瘿是造瘿昆虫诱导植物组织不正常生长产生的,它们通过释放某些酶或者植物激素刺激寄主植物细胞增大或增殖产生了特异形态的虫瘿,而这种特异形态就是造瘿昆虫遗传基因的体外表达。但虫瘿产生的分子机制不是十分清楚,文章主要对目前植物虫瘿的形态特征、形成机制等方面进行综述。     

Plant cmolecular biology manual

Book Review

Plant cmolecular biology manualS.B. Galvin, R.A. Schilperoort and D.P.S. Verma (Eds.), Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989. £52.00. ISBN 0-7923-0236-2     

Worldwide genetic structure in 37 genes important in telomere biology

Telomeres form the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and are vital in maintaining genetic integrity. Telomere dysfunction is associated with cancer and several chronic diseases. Patterns of genetic variation across individuals can provide keys to further understanding the evolutionary history of genes. We investigated patterns of differentiation and population structure of 37 telomere maintenance genes among 53 worldwide populations. Data from 898 unrelated individuals were obtained from the genome-wide scan of the Human Genome Diversity Panel (HGDP) and from 270 unrelated individuals from the International HapMap Project at 716 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci. We additionally compared this gene set to HGDP data at 1396 SNPs in 174 innate immunity genes. The majority of the telomere biology genes had low to moderate haplotype diversity (45-85%), high ancestral allele frequencies (>60%) and low differentiation (FST<0.10). Heterozygosity and differentiation were significantly lower in telomere biology genes compared with the innate immunity genes. There was evidence of evolutionary selection in ACD, TERF2IP, NOLA2, POT1 and TNKS in this data set, which was consistent in HapMap 3. TERT had higher than expected levels of haplotype diversity, likely attributable to a lack of linkage disequilibrium, and a potential cancer-associated SNP in this gene, rs2736100, varied substantially in genotype frequency across major continental regions. It is possible that the genes under selection could influence telomere biology diseases. As a group, there appears to be less diversity and differentiation in telomere biology genes than in genes with different functions, possibly due to their critical role in telomere maintenance and chromosomal stability.