Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Oct 13;22(20):11048. doi: 10.3390/ijms222011048.
Interstitial telomeric sequences (ITSs) are stretches of telomeric-like repeats located at internal chromosomal sites. We previously demonstrated that ITSs have been inserted during the repair of DNA double-strand breaks in the course of evolution and that some rodent ITSs, called TERC-ITSs, are flanked by fragments retrotranscribed from the telomerase RNA component (TERC). In this work, we carried out an extensive search of TERC-ITSs in 30 vertebrate genomes and identified 41 such loci in 22 species, including in humans and other primates. The fragment retrotranscribed from the TERC RNA varies in different lineages and its sequence seems to be related to the organization of TERC. Through comparative analysis of TERC-ITSs with orthologous empty loci, we demonstrated that, at each locus, the TERC-like sequence and the ITS have been inserted in one step in the course of evolution. Our findings suggest that telomerase participated in a peculiar pathway of DNA double-strand break repair involving retrotranscription of its RNA component and that this mechanism may be active in all vertebrate species. These results add new evidence to the hypothesis that RNA-templated DNA repair mechanisms are active in vertebrate cells.
端粒间序列(ITSs)是位于内部染色体位置的类似于端粒的重复序列。我们之前证明,ITSs 是在进化过程中 DNA 双链断裂修复过程中插入的,一些啮齿动物的 ITSs,称为 TERC-ITSs,其侧翼是由端粒酶 RNA 成分(TERC)逆转录的片段。在这项工作中,我们在 30 种脊椎动物基因组中进行了广泛的 TERC-ITSs 搜索,在 22 个物种中鉴定出 41 个这样的基因座,包括人类和其他灵长类动物。从 TERC RNA 逆转录的片段在不同的谱系中变化,其序列似乎与 TERC 的组织有关。通过对 TERC-ITSs 与同源空基因座的比较分析,我们证明,在每个基因座上,TERC 样序列和 ITS 是在进化过程中一步插入的。我们的发现表明,端粒酶参与了一种特殊的 DNA 双链断裂修复途径,涉及其 RNA 成分的逆转录,并且这种机制可能在所有脊椎动物物种中都活跃。这些结果为 RNA 模板化 DNA 修复机制在脊椎动物细胞中活跃的假说提供了新的证据。