Human telomere RNA and DNA form an intermolecular G-quadruplex.
For a long time, telomeres have been considered to be transcriptionally silent. Recently, Azzalin et al. demonstrated that telomeres are transcribed into telomeric repeat-containing RNA (TERRA) in mammalian cells. The telomere RNA was found to localize at the telomere DNA. These findings raise a possibility of that telomere RNA may be involved in an intermolecular G-quadruplex with the telomere DNA. In the current studies, we found that human telomere RNA and telomere DNA sequence can form hybrid-type parallel G-quadruplex structure. These results provide valuable information to allow understanding of the roles of human telomeric RNA in chromosome ends regulation and protection.
Xu
Yan
Y
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan. xuyan@mkomi.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Kimura
Takashi
T
Komiyama
Makoto
M
D002942:Circular Dichroism; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D054856:G-Quadruplexes; D008958:Models, Molecular; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D016615:Telomere / Q000737:chemistry*
D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA