title: The Genetic Basis of Natural Variation in Caenorhabditis elegans Telomere Length.
abstract: Telomeres are involved in the maintenance of chromosomes and the prevention of genome instability. Despite this central importance, significant variation in telomere length has been observed in a variety of organisms. The genetic determinants of telomere-length variation and their effects on organismal fitness are largely unexplored. Here, we describe natural variation in telomere length across the Caenorhabditis elegans species. We identify a large-effect variant that contributes to differences in telomere length. The variant alters the conserved oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding fold of protection of telomeres 2 (POT-2), a homolog of a human telomere-capping shelterin complex subunit. Mutations within this domain likely reduce the ability of POT-2 to bind telomeric DNA, thereby increasing telomere length. We find that telomere-length variation does not correlate with offspring production or longevity in C. elegans wild isolates, suggesting that naturally long telomeres play a limited role in modifying fitness phenotypes in C. elegans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 Interdisciplinary Biological Science Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3347-562X
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 Interdisciplinary Biological Science Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2883-4616
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zdraljevic
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
authors.forename: Robyn E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Tanny
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Seoul National University, 08826, Korea.
authors.forename: Beomseok
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New York University, New York 10003 Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York 10003.
authors.forename: David D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Riccardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New York University, New York 10003 Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York 10003.
authors.forename: Luke M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Noble
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New York University, New York 10003 Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York 10003.
authors.forename: Matthew V
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6492-8906
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Rockman
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605.
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Alkema
authors.affiliation: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Institut de Biologie Valrose, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, 06100 Nice, France.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Braendle
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nematology, Wageningen University, 6708 PB, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kammenga
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Human Genetics and Biological Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815.
authors.forename: Leonid
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kruglyak
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie de l'École Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Anne
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Félix
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Seoul National University, 08826, Korea Department of Biophysics and Chemical Biology, Seoul National University, 08826, Korea.
authors.forename: Junho
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611 Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 erik.andersen@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Erik C
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0229-9651
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D014644:Genetic Variation; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins; D004247:DNA
keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; QTL; shelterin; telomere length; whole-genome sequence