Assuntos
Epigênese Genética , Células Germinativas/citologia , Animais , Caenorhabditis elegans/citologia , Caenorhabditis elegans/genética , Drosophila melanogaster/citologia , Drosophila melanogaster/genética , Feminino , Masculino , Camundongos , Modelos Genéticos , Fenótipo , Fator 1 de Ligação ao Domínio I Regulador Positivo , Proteínas Repressoras/genética , Proteínas Repressoras/metabolismo , Células-Tronco Totipotentes/citologia , Fatores de Transcrição/genética , Fatores de Transcrição/metabolismoRESUMO
A major issue in telomere research is to understand how the integrity of chromosome ends is preserved. A recent study shows that expression of a dominant-negative form of the human telomeric protein TRF2 increases the number of chromosome fusions in immortalized cells and decreases the quantity of G-rich telomeric DNA 3' overhang, the G tail. Consequently, TRF2 appears to control the structure of the very end of the chromosomal DNA molecule and to prevent recombination between two telomeres. Remarkably, the same study reveals a potential role of TRF2 in cell division control.
Assuntos
Cromossomos Humanos/genética , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/metabolismo , Telômero/genética , Divisão Celular , Cromossomos Humanos/ultraestrutura , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/química , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/genética , Humanos , Telômero/ultraestrutura , Proteína 2 de Ligação a Repetições TeloméricasRESUMO
Natural chromosomal ends are stabilized by proteins that bind duplex telomeric DNA repeats. In human cells, the TTAGGG Repeat Factor 1 (TRF1) was identified by two independent studies, one screening for factors that bind duplex telomeric DNA and the other screening for proteins containing a particular Myb motif called the telobox, which is required for telomeric repeat recognition (Fig. 1a; refs 3-5). A second human open reading frame, orf2, contains a telobox sequence and encodes a polypeptide that specifically recognizes mammalian telomeric repeat DNA in vitro. We show that two proteins of 65 and 69 kD, expressed in HeLa cells, contain the orf2 telobox sequence. These proteins are collectively termed TRF2. Affinity-purified antibodies specific for anti-TRF2 label the telomeres of intact human chromosomes, strengthening the correlation between occurrence of telobox and telomere-repeat recognition in vivo.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/metabolismo , Telômero/metabolismo , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Sequência de Bases , DNA/genética , DNA/metabolismo , Primers do DNA/genética , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/genética , Imunofluorescência , Células HeLa , Humanos , Repetições de Microssatélites , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Fases de Leitura Aberta , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase , Telômero/genética , Proteína 2 de Ligação a Repetições TeloméricasRESUMO
The yeast TTAGGG binding factor 1 (Tbf1) was identified and cloned through its ability to interact with vertebrate telomeric repeats in vitro. We show here that a sequence of 60 amino acids located in its C-terminus is critical for DNA binding. This sequence exhibits homologies with Myb repeats and is conserved among five proteins from plants, two of which are known to bind telomeric-related sequences, and two proteins from human, including the telomeric repeat binding factor (TRF) and the predicted C-terminal polypeptide, called orf2, from a yet unknown protein. We demonstrate that the 111 C-terminal residues of TRF and the 64 orf2 residues are able to bind the human telomeric repeats specifically. We propose to call the particular Myb-related motif found in these proteins the 'telobox'. Antibodies directed against the Tbf1 telobox detect two proteins in nuclear and mitotic chromosome extracts from human cell lines. Moreover, both proteins bind specifically to telomeric repeats in vitro. TRF is likely to correspond to one of them. Based on their high affinity for the telomeric repeat, we predict that TRF and orf2 play an important role at human telomeres.
