Robertson Hugh M, Gordon Karl H J
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Genome Res. 2006 Nov;16(11):1345-51. doi: 10.1101/gr.5085606. Epub 2006 Oct 25.
The draft assembly of the honey bee Apis mellifera genome sequence reveals that the 17 centromeric-distal telomeres are of a simple, shared, and canonical structure, with 3-4 kb of a unique subtelomeric sequence, followed by several kilobases of TTAGG or variant telomeric repeats. This simple subtelomeric structure differs from the centromeric-proximal telomeres on the short arms of the 15 acrocentric chromosomes, which are apparently composed primarily of the 176-bp AluI tandem repeat. This dichotomy between the distal and proximal telomeres may involve differential participation of the telomeres of the 15 acrocentric chromosomes in the Rabl configuration after mitosis and the chromosome bouquet in meiotic prophase I. As expected from the presence of canonical TTAGG telomeric repeats, we identified a candidate telomerase gene in the bee, as well as the silkmoth Bombyx mori and the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum.
蜜蜂(西方蜜蜂)基因组序列的草图组装显示,17个着丝粒远端端粒具有简单、共享且规范的结构,有3 - 4千碱基对的独特亚端粒序列,随后是几千碱基对的TTAGG或变异端粒重复序列。这种简单的亚端粒结构不同于15条近端着丝粒染色体短臂上的着丝粒近端端粒,后者显然主要由176碱基对的AluI串联重复序列组成。远端和近端端粒之间的这种二分法可能涉及有丝分裂后15条近端着丝粒染色体的端粒在拉布尔构型以及减数分裂前期I染色体花束中的不同参与情况。正如从规范的TTAGG端粒重复序列的存在所预期的那样,我们在蜜蜂以及家蚕和赤拟谷盗中鉴定出了一个候选端粒酶基因。