Strain-specific telomere length revealed by single telomere length analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans

被引:23
作者
Cheung, I
Schertzer, M
Baross, A
Rose, AM
Lansdorp, PM [1 ]
Baird, DM
机构
[1] British Columbia Canc Agcy, Terry Fox Lab, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada
[2] Univ British Columbia, Dept Med Genet, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
[3] Univ British Columbia, Dept Med, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
[4] Univ Wales Coll Med, Dept Pathol, Cardiff CF14 4XN, S Glam, Wales
基金
加拿大健康研究院;
关键词
D O I
10.1093/nar/gkh661
中图分类号
Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];
学科分类号
071010 ; 081704 ;
摘要
Terminal restriction fragment analysis is the only method currently available for measuring telomere length in Caenorhabditis elegans. Its limitations include low sensitivity and interference by the presence of interstitial telomeric sequences in the C.elegans genome. Here we report the adaptation of single telomere length analysis (STELA) to measure the length of telomeric repeats on the left arm of chromosome V in C.elegans. This highly sensitive PCR-based method allows telomere length measurement from as few as a single worm. The application of STELA to eight wild-type C.elegans strains revealed considerable strain-specific differences in telomere length. Within individual strains, short outlying telomeres were observed that were clearly distinct from the bulk telomere length distributions, suggesting that processes other than end-replication losses and telomerase-mediated lengthening may generate telomere length heterogeneity in C.elegans. The utility of this method was further demonstrated by the characterization of telomere shortening in mrt-2 mutants. We conclude that STELA appears to be a valuable tool for studying telomere biology in C.elegans.
引用
收藏
页码:3383 / 3391
页数:9
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