A developmentally regulated deletion element with long terminal repeats has cis-acting sequences in the flanking DNA

Approximately 6000 specific DNA deletion events occur during development of the somatic macronucleus of the ciliate Tetrahymena. The eliminated Tlr1 element is 13 kb or more in length and has an 825 bp inverted repeat near the rearrangement junctions. A functional analysis of the cis-acting sequences required for Tlr1 rearrangement was performed. A construct consisting of the entire inverted repeat and several hundred base pairs of flanking DNA on each side was rearranged accurately in vivo and displayed junctional variability similar to the chromosomal Tlr1 rearrangement. Thus, 11 kb or more of internal element DNA is not required in cis for DNA rearrangement. A second construct with only 51 bp of Tetrahymena DNA flanking the right junction underwent aberrant rearrangement. Thus, a signal for determination of the Tlr1 junction is located in the flanking DNA, 51 bp or more from the right junction. Within the Tlr1 inverted repeat are 19 bp tandem repeats. A construct with the 19mer repeat region deleted from the right half of the inverted repeat utilized normal rearrangement junctions. Thus, despite its transposon-like structure, Tlr1 is similar to other DNA rearrangements in Tetrahymena in possessing cis-acting sequences outside the deleted DNA.     

Two types of deletion within integrated viral sequences mediate reversion of simian virus 40-transformed mouse cells.

Simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA insertions from SV40-transformed mouse cell line W-2K-11 and its revertants M18, M31, and M42 were cloned. W-2K-11 cells contain 1.5 copies of the SV40 sequences in a partially tandem duplicated form. The endpoints of the viral sequences at the virus-host junctions are located very close to those reported by others, indicating that there are some preferred sites for integration and rearrangement in SV40 sequences. One flanking cellular sequence is a long stretch of adenine and thymine with repeated AAAT, and the other is a stretch of guanine and cytosine with repeated CCG. There are patchy homologies between the flanking cellular sequences and the corresponding parental SV40 sequences. The sequences around both junctions were retained in all the revertants, whereas most of the internal SV40 sequences coding for large T antigen were deleted. The coding sequences for small T antigen are intact, and small T antigen was expressed in all the revertants. The fragments cloned from M18 and M42 were identical and 3.9 kilobases of SV40 sequences were deleted. The parental SV40 sequences around the deletion site have sequences capable of forming a secondary structure which might reduce the effective distance between the two regions. The SV40 DNA retained in M31 is colinear with SV40 virion DNA, and a unit length of SV40 DNA was deleted within the SV40 sequences present in W-2K-11 cells. These results indicated that two types of deletion occurred during the reversion, one between homologous sequences and the other between nonhomologous sequences.     

Chromosomal deletion and rearrangement in Streptomyces glaucescens.

The Streptomyces glaucescens genome frequently undergoes gross genomic rearrangement events which result in the deletion of extremely large segments of chromosomal DNA. The structure and origin of the DNA forming the novel junctions arising from five of these deletion events are described. Only one junction proved to be the result of a relatively simple event; the remainder were more complex, with one involving DNA which originated from at least five distinct loci. In three of the investigated cases, DNA sequences present in the junctions appeared to have resulted from the duplication of previously unique sequences, suggesting that duplication of chromosomal segments may be an important factor in genetic instability. The nucleotide sequences surrounding these junctions and their respective wild-type termini were determined.     

PCR-mediated one-step deletion of targeted chromosomal regions in haploid <Emphasis Type="Italic">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</Emphasis>

Chromosome rearrangements, especially chromosomal deletions, have been exploited as important resources for functional analysis of genomes. To facilitate this analysis, we applied a previously developed method for chromosome splitting for the direct deletion of a designed internal or terminal chromosomal region carrying many nonessential genes in haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-mediated chromosomal deletion (PCD), consists of a two-step PCR and one transformation per deletion event. In this paper, we show that the PCD method efficiently deletes internal regions in a single transformation. Of the six chromosomal regions targeted for deletion by this method, five regions (16 to 38 kb in length) containing 10 to 19 nonessential genes were successfully eliminated at high efficiency. The one targeted region on chromosome XIII that was not deleted was subsequently found to contain sequences essential for yeast growth. While 14 individual genes in this region have been reported to be nonessential, synthetic lethal interactions may occur among these nonessential genes. Phenotypic analysis showed that four deletion strains still exhibited normal growth while possible synthetic growth defects were observed in another strain harboring a 19-gene deletion on chromosome XV. These results demonstrate that the PCD method is a useful tool for deleting genes and for analyzing their functions in defined chromosomal regions.     

Gene targeting and instability of Agrobacterium T-DNA loci in the plant genome

To develop a model system for studies of homologous recombination in plants, transgenic Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana plumbaginifolia lines were generated harbouring a single target T-DNA containing the negative selective codA gene encoding cytosine deaminase (CD) and the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. Subsequently, the target lines were transformed with a replacement-type T-DNA vector in which the CD gene and the GUS promoter had been replaced with a kanamycin-resistance gene. For both Nicotiana species kanamycin-resistant lines were selected which had lost the CD gene and the GUS activity. One tobacco line was the result of a precise gene targeting event. However, most other lines were selected due to a chromosomal deletion of the target locus. The deletion frequency of the target locus varied between target lines, and could be present in up to 20% of the calli which were grown from leaf protoplasts. T-DNA transfer was not required for induction of the deletions, indicating that the target loci were unstable. A few lines were obtained in which the target locus had been deleted partially. Sequence analysis of the junctions revealed deletion of DNA sequences between microhomologies. We conclude that T-DNAs, which are stable during plant development as well as in transmission to the offspring, may become unstable during propagation in callus tissue. The relationships between callus culture, genetic instability and the process of T-DNA integration and deletion in the plant genome are discussed.     

Preferential amplification and molecular characterization of junction sequences of a pathogenetic deletion in human mitochondrial DNA

Deletions of mitochondrial DNA have been detected in skeletal muscle of some patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathies, but their junctions have been defined only approximately. We developed a procedure, using widely spaced primers for the polymerase chain reaction, that amplifies preferentially the sequences bracketing the deletion. This procedure permits detection of minor proportions, not detectable by Southern analysis, of deleted mitochondrial DNA species in a heteroplasmic mixture. Different proportions of intact mitochondrial DNA and species deleted from nucleotide 8708 to 13,722 were found in skeletal muscle, blood, and urinary epithelial cells from a patient with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia. These data indicate that the mutation occurred at or before early embryonic development and provide the first definition at the nucleotide level of a human disease caused by a deletion of mitochondrial DNA.     

Chromatin diminution in the copepod Mesocyclops edax: diminution of tandemly repeated DNA families from somatic cells.

Chromatin diminution, i.e., the loss of selected chromosomal regions during the differentiation of early embryonic cells into somatic cells, has been described in taxa as varied as ciliates, copepods, insects, nematodes, and hagfish. The nature of the eliminated DNA has been extensively studied in ciliate, nematode, and hagfish species. However, the small size of copepods, which makes it difficult to obtain enough DNA from early embryonic cells for cloning and sequencing, has limited such studies. Here, to identify the sequences eliminated from the somatic cells of a copepod species that undergoes chromatin diminution, we randomly amplified DNA fragments from germ line and somatic line cells of Mesocyclops edax, a freshwater cyclopoid copepod. Of 47 randomly amplified germ line clones, 45 (96%) contained short, tandemly repeated sequences composed of either 2 bp CA-repeats, 8 bp CAAATAGA-repeats, or 9 bp CAAATTAAA-repeats. In contrast, of 83 randomly amplified somatic line clones, only 47 (57%) contained such short, tandemly repeated sequences. As previously observed in some nematode species, our results therefore show that there is partial elimination of chromosomal regions containing (CAAATAGA and CAAATTAAA) repeated sequences during the chromatin diminution observed in the somatic cells of M. edax. We speculate that chromatin diminution might have evolved repeatedly by recruitment of RNAi-related mechanisms to eliminate nonfunctional tandemly repeated DNA sequences from the somatic genome of some species.     

L1 gene conversion or same-site transposition.

DNA sequence analysis of the same chromosomal region from two haplotypes of Mus musculus and from the related species M. caroli and M. pahari reveals the presence of long interspersed sequence one (LINES-1, or L1) elements residing at the same nucleotide position in the two most distantly related of the species (M. musculus and M. pahari). The DNA sequence of each of these L1 elements is more similar to that of other L1 elements from its own species than to the other. Thus, the L1 sequence at each of these sites is recent with respect to the divergence of the species. This could be a result of recent gene conversion of L1 elements inherited from a common ancestor or of two recent independent L1 insertion events at the same nucleotide position in the two species. Such specificity of insertion would be quite different from the apparent randomness of other characterized L1 insertion events, such as those in the beta-globin locus. If the recent L1 sequences arose at this site by gene conversion of an ancestral L1 element, then the absence of an L1 element at this location in the M. caroli chromosome examined could arise either from its precise deletion from M. caroli or from the segregation into M. caroli of a polymorphic chromosome present in the ancestral population which was missing this L1 element.     

Nucleotide sequence structure and consistency of a developmentally regulated DNA deletion in Tetrahymena thermophila.

DNA deletion by site-specific chromosome breakage and rejoining occurs extensively during macronuclear development in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. We have sequenced both the micronuclear (germ line) and rearranged macronuclear (somatic) forms of one region from which 1.1 kilobases of micronuclear DNA are reproducibly deleted during macronuclear development. The deletion junctions lie within a pair of 6-base-pair direct repeats. The termini of the deleted sequence are not inverted repeats. The precision of deletion at the nucleotide level was also characterized by hybridization with a synthetic oligonucleotide matching the determined macronuclear (rejoined) junction sequence. This deletion occurs in a remarkably sequence-specific manner. However, a very minor degree of variability in the macronuclear junction sequences was detected and was shown to be inherent in the mechanism of deletion itself. These results suggest that DNA deletion during macronuclear development in T. thermophila may constitute a novel type of DNA recombination and that it can create sequence heterogeneity on the order of a few base pairs at rejoining junctions.     

Developmentally programmed DNA rearrangement in Tetrahymena thermophila: Isolation and sequence characterization of three new alternative deletion systems

Extensive developmentally programmed DNA rearrangements, including thousands of internal deletions, occur in the differentiating somatic macronucleus in Tetrahymena thermophila. Some deletion systems involve the use of multiple alternative deletion sites. We report here the cloning and the sequences of three new alternative deletion systems (RR, RP and B) obtained using genomic subtraction. The RP and RR deletion systems are 2 kb apart on chromosome IR, and both involve the removal of < 2 kb of micronuclear sequences. The B deletion system is on chromosome 5 and involves a deletion of > 5 kb. All three deleted regions are very AT rich (∼ 80%) and do not appear to encode any protein. Sequences of the regions flanking the deletion junctions of all three systems revealed no sequence similarity among them nor with any previously reported deletion systems, suggesting that different cis-acting elements are involved for rearrangement. Unlike other deletion systems in ciliates, the B deletion system lacks short terminal direct repeats. Our results suggest an average of at least one alternative deletion system per 134 kb of micronuclear DNA and lead to an estimate that at least 25% of all deletion systems in Tetrahymena utilize alternative ends. The genomic subtraction method employed in this study could prove useful for the isolation of alternatively deleted DNA in special-purpose cases in Tetrahymena and other ciliates. The hybridization parameters for genomic subtraction worked out here for highly AT-rich DNA may have wider usefulness.     

Product analysis illuminates the final steps of IES deletion in Tetrahymena thermophila.

DNA sequences (IES elements) eliminated from the developing macronucleus in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila are released as linear fragments, which have now been detected and isolated. A PCR-mediated examination of fragment end structures reveals three types of strand scission events, reflecting three steps in the deletion process. New evidence is provided for two steps proposed previously: an initiating double-stranded cleavage, and strand transfer to create a branched deletion intermediate. The fragment ends provide evidence for a previously uncharacterized third step: the branched DNA strand is cleaved at one of several defined sites located within 15-16 nucleotides of the IES boundary, liberating the deleted DNA in a linear form.     

Nearly precise excision: a new type of DNA alteration associated with the translocatable element Tn10.

We describe an unusual DNA alteration, "nearly precise excision," which has been identified among tetracycline-sensitive deletion derivatives of lambda phages carrying the translocatable tetracycline-resistance element Tn10. DNA sequence analysis of two such derivatives demonstrates that each retains exactly 50 bp of Tn10 material. The original junctions between lambda and Tn10 sequences remain intact; however, an internal deletion has occurred within Tn10 which eliminates all but the last few base pairs at each end of the element. This deletion occurs within a short A + T-rich inverted repeat which is present near each end of Tn10. Nearly precise excisions occur at frequencies comparable to Tn10-promoted deletions, inversions and translocations, and, like these other events, are independent of phage and bacterial functions for homologous recombination (recA, recB, red). It is not yet clear, however, whether nearly precise excisions are specifically promoted by Tn10 or whether they arise during the course of normal DNA replication processes as a consequence of unusual symmetries present in the DNA sequence at the ends of Tn10.     

Change in chromosome number associated with a double deletion in the Neurospora crassa mitochondrial chromosome

The mitochondrial genome of Neurospora is usually found in a single covalently closed circular 62-kbp DNA molecule. We report here that the mitochondrial genome of a phenotypic revertant of a stopper mutant (stp-ruv) is contained primarily in two separate, nonoverlapping, autonomously replicating circular chromosomes. The circles, one about 21 kbp and the other somewhat less than 36 kbp are derived from the most frequent classes of recombinant chromosomes (21 and 41 kbp) in the chromosomal population of mitochondria in the original stopper mutant. The new, more stable chromosomal configuration, is associated with the deletion of two sequences (1 kbp and 4 kbp) at the splice junctions of the two circles. The data suggest that both deletions are likely to have originated from a single recombinational event involved in generating the 36-kbp circle. Secondary, spontaneously arising derivatives of stp-ruv have been found to yield, at high copy number, short sections of the 21-kbp circle in covalently closed supercoiled circles varying from unit length to very high multimers. The amplified segments span a common segment likely to contain the replication origin of the 21-kbp chromosome.     

Cytotypes of Kirk's dik-dik (Madoqua kirkii,Bovidae) show multiple tandem fusions

Madoqua kirkii, a miniature African antelope, is noted for extensive chromosomal variation that has been categorized in four distinct cytotypes (A-D). In this investigation, we analyzed the A cytotype (2n = 46, FN = 48) using a suite of molecular cytogenetic approaches that entailed (i) whole chromosome and subchromosomal painting by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), (ii) the study of Madoqua centromeric-specific DNA derived from pooled DNA obtained from the centromeric regions of the acrocentric chromosomes, and (iii) DNA from the telomere:centromere junctions of tandemly fused chromosomes. DNA from these sources was used to probe for the persistence of interstitial satellite DNA and residual centromeric sequences in the tandem and centric fusion junctions by PCR and FISH. The analyses show centromeric sequences at two of the six tandem fusion junctions. These data, and those of hybrid specimens (A × B cytotypes) in conjunction with published information permitted an interpretation of the probable sequence of chromosomal rearrangements among the M. kirkii cytotypes. We discuss the findings in the context of chromosomal evolution in these antelopes, and the implications that these hold for ex-situ breeding programs of the species.     

New mammalian cellular systems to study mutations introduced at the break site by non-homologous end-joining

The non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway is a mechanism to repair DNA double strand breaks, which can introduce mutations at repair sites. We constructed new cellular systems to specifically analyze sequence modifications occurring at the repair site. In particular, we looked for the presence of telomeric repeats at the repair junctions, since our previous work indicated that telomeric sequences could be inserted at break sites in germ-line cells during primate evolution. To induce specific DNA breaks, we used the I-SceI system of Saccharomyces cerevisiae or digestion with restriction enzymes. We isolated human and hamster cell lines containing the I-SceI target site integrated in a single chromosomal locus and we exposed the cells to a continuous expression of the I-SceI endonuclease gene. Additionally, we isolated human cell lines that expressed constitutively the I-SceI endonuclease and we introduced the target site on an episomal plasmid stably transfected into the cells. These strategies allowed us to recover repair junctions in which the I-SceI target site was modified at high frequency (100% in hamster cells and about 70% in human cells). Finally, we analyzed junctions produced on an episomal plasmid linearized by restriction enzymes. In all the systems studied, sequence analysis of individual repair junctions showed that deletions were the most frequent modifications, being present in more than 80% of the junctions. On the episomal plasmids, the average deletion length was greater than at intrachromosomal sites. Insertions of nucleotides or deletions associated with insertions were rare events. Junction organization suggested different mechanisms of formation. To check for the insertion of telomeric sequences, we screened plasmid libraries representing about 3.5 x 10(5) junctions with a telomeric repeat probe. No positive clones were detected, suggesting that the addition of telomeric sequences during double strand break repair in somatic cells in culture is either a very rare event or does not occur at all.     

A programmed site-specific DNA rearrangement in Tetrahymena thermophila requires flanking polypurine tracts

During macronuclear development in ciliates, precise deletion events eliminate thousands of specific DNA segments. Each segment is bounded by a unique pair of short direct repeats, but no other common feature has been reported. To determine the critical cis-acting sequences, we developed an in vivo system for analyzing this process in Tetrahymena. We show that sequences essential for recognition and excision of one such region are located within the 70 bp of DNA flanking either side of it. Three authentic splice sites and one cryptic site are each adjacent to an unusual polypurine tract (5'-A5G5) situated 40-50 bp distal to each terminal repeat. Removal of this tract or substitution of 3 bp within it abolishes splicing to the adjacent site. The normal chromosomal environment and the integrity of the eliminated sequence are not required for its removal. We believe the polypurine tract is a signal essential for excision of this sequence.