title: Allele-specific relative telomere lengths are inherited.
abstract: Previous studies have indicated that single relative telomere lengths are defined in the zygote. In order to explore the possibility that single telomere lengths segregate in families, we compared relative telomere lengths obtained from allelic chromosome extremities transmitted from parent to child, representing a total of 31 independent meiotic events. We find a significant positive correlation of 0.65 (P=0.0004) between these telomere lengths, whereas the correlation between the non-transmitted parental homologue and the transmitted homologue in the child is not statistically significant (r=0.16; P=0.195). This study indicates that, even though there is a telomerase-mediated maintenance/elongation of telomeres in germ cells, allele-specific relative telomere lengths are preserved in the next generation.
authors.affiliation: Telomeres and Cancer Lab, UMR7147, CNRS-I, Curie-UPMC, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Graakjaer
authors.forename: Héra
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Der-Sarkissian
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Steen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kolvraa
authors.forename: José-Arturo
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Londoño-Vallejo
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D043171:Chromosomal Instability; D020090:Chromosome Segregation; D002877:Chromosomes, Human / Q000737:chemistry; D005190:Family; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D008954:Models, Biological; D010290:Parents; D020135:Peptide Nucleic Acids / Q000032:analysis; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers; D020135:Peptide Nucleic Acids; D019098:Telomerase