Telomeric motifs are present in a highly repetitive element in the Plasmodium berghei genome.
Using as probes the subfragments of the telomeric sequence previously cloned by us from Plasmodium berghei DNA, we identified and cloned a 2.3 kb repeat, largely overlapping the original telomeric insert. Restriction mapping indicated that cloned inserts (2.3 kb in length) represented circularly permutated versions of a rather well conserved repeated element, at least in part organized in tandem. The 2.3 kb repeat family with a copy number of about 300 occupies about 4% of the whole genome. The copies are unevenly distributed among the chromosome-sized molecules revealed by pulsed field gradient electrophoresis. Complete sequence determination of the 2.3 kb element revealed that telomere-related motifs are present with a characteristic pattern in a set of tandem repeats, 27 bp long. The perfect conservation of these motifs as well as the pattern of chromosomal distribution suggest that we are dealing with a specialised structure subject to selective mechanisms of amplification and maintenance.
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis*; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005796:Genes; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D004247:DNA; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes