Retrotransposon-mediated restoration of Chlorella telomeres: accumulation of Zepp retrotransposons at termini of newly formed minichromosomes.

ABSTRACT: To elucidate the contribution of LINE-like retrotransposon Zepp elements to the formation and maintenance of chromosomal telomeres, newly formed minichromosomes in irradiated Chlorella vulgaris cells were isolated and structurally characterized. A minichromosome (miniV4) of approximately 700 kb in size contained a Zepp cluster taking the place of the telomeric repeats on one terminus, whereas the other end of this chromosome consisted of canonical telomeric repeats. The Zepp copies in this cluster were in a tandem array with their poly(A) tails towards the centromere. Another minichromosome Y32 ( approximately 400 kb in size) was shown to have several copies of Zepp elements on both termini. On the right arm terminus, two copies of Zepp were found in a tandem array with poly(A) tracts faci

SUBMITTER: Yamamoto Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC169880 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature