A parent-of-origin effect on embryonic telomere elongation determines telomere length inheritance.

ABSTRACT: Telomere length is inherited directly as a DNA sequence and as a classic quantitative trait controlled by many genes across the genome. Here, we show that neither paradigm fully accounts for telomere length inheritance, which also depends on a parent-of-origin effect on telomere elongation in the early embryo. By reciprocally crossing mouse strains with different telomere lengths, we find that telomeres elongate in hybrid embryos only when maternal telomeres are short and paternal telomeres are long. In the reciprocal cross, telomeres shorten. These differences in embryonic telomere elongation, which emerge before zygotic genome activation, predict adult telomere length. Moreover, when telomeres do elongate, we find molecular signatures of a recombination-based mechanism of telomere elonga

SUBMITTER: Jeon HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11838392 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature