title: Sequence comparison of human and yeast telomeres identifies structurally distinct subtelomeric domains.
abstract: We have sequenced and compared DNA from the ends of three human chromosomes: 4p, 16p and 22q. In all cases the pro-terminal regions are subdivided by degenerate (TTAGGG)n repeats into distal and proximal sub-domains with entirely different patterns of homology to other chromosome ends. The distal regions contain numerous, short (<2 kb) segments of interrupted homology to many other human telomeric regions. The proximal regions show much longer (approximately 10-40 kb) uninterrupted homology to a few chromosome ends. A comparison of all yeast subtelomeric regions indicates that they too are subdivided by degenerate TTAGGG repeats into distal and proximal sub-domains with similarly different patterns of identity to other non-homologous chromosome ends. Sequence comparisons indicate that the distal and proximal sub-domains do not interact with each other and that they interact quite differently with the corresponding regions on other, non-homologous, chromosomes. These findings suggest that the degenerate TTAGGG repeats identify a previously unrecognized, evolutionarily conserved boundary between remarkably different subtelomeric domains.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, UK. jf@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Flint
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dorman
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Willingham
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Roe
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Micklem
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Higgs
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Louis
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D018244:Chromosomes, Artificial, Yeast; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics; D016615:Telomere