Gallego M E, White C I
Unité Mixte de Recherche 6547 BIOMOVE, Université Blaise Pascal, 24, Avenue des Landais, 63177 Aubière, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Feb 13;98(4):1711-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.98.4.1711.
We have identified and characterized an Arabidopsis thaliana rad50 mutant plant containing a T-DNA insertion in the AtRAD50 gene and showing both meiotic and DNA repair defects. We report here that rad50/rad50 mutant cells show a progressive shortening of telomeric DNA relative to heterozygous rad50/RAD50 controls and that the mutant cell population rapidly enters a crisis, with the majority of the cells dying. Surviving rad50 mutant cells have longer telomeres than wild-type cells, indicating the existence in plants of an alternative RAD50-independent mechanism for telomere maintenance. These results report the role of a protein essential for double-strand break repair in telomere maintenance in higher eukaryotes.
我们已经鉴定并表征了一种拟南芥rad50突变体植株,该植株在AtRAD50基因中存在T-DNA插入,并且表现出减数分裂和DNA修复缺陷。我们在此报告,相对于杂合的rad50/RAD50对照,rad50/rad50突变体细胞显示端粒DNA逐渐缩短,并且突变细胞群体迅速进入危机状态,大多数细胞死亡。存活的rad50突变体细胞的端粒比野生型细胞更长,这表明植物中存在一种不依赖RAD50的端粒维持替代机制。这些结果揭示了一种对双链断裂修复至关重要的蛋白质在高等真核生物端粒维持中的作用。