Trt-1 is the Caenorhabditis elegans catalytic subunit of telomerase.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Meier B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1361356 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Telomerase, a cellular reverse transcriptase, adds telomeric repeats to chromosome ends. In normal human somatic cells, telomerase is repressed and telomeres progressively shorten, leading to proliferative senescence. Introduction of the telomerase (hTERT) cDNA is sufficient to produce telomerase activity and immortalize normal human cells, suggesting that the repression of telomerase activity is transcriptional. The telomerase transcript has been shown to have at least six alternate splicing sites (four insertion sites and two deletion sites), and variants containing both or either of the deletion sites are present during development and in a panel of cancer cell lines we surveyed. One deletion (beta site) and all four insertions cause premature translation terminations, whereas the other deletion (alpha site) is 36 bp and lies within reverse transcriptase (RT) motif A, suggesting that this deletion variant may be a candidate as a dominant-negative inhibitor of telomerase. We have cloned three alternately spliced hTERT variants that contain the alpha, beta or both alpha and beta deletion sites. These alternate splicing variants along with empty vector and wild-type hTERT were introduced into normal human fibroblasts and several telomerase-positive immortal and tumor cell lines. Expression of the alpha site deletion variant (hTERT alpha-) construct was confirmed by Western blotting. We found that none of the three alternate splicing variants reconstitutes telomerase activity in fibroblasts. However, hTERT alpha- inhibits telomerase activities in telomerase-positive cells, causes telomere shortening and eventually cell death. This alternately spliced dominant-negative variant may be important in understanding telomerase regulation during development, differentiation and in cancer progression.
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Project description:Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein complex that includes the telomerase RNA component (hTR) and the telomerase catalytic subunit gene (hTERT) product, has been shown to be activated in the majority of cancer tissues and immortalized cells. To study telomerase activation during the progression of cervical cancer, the expression of hTR and hTERT RNAs in tissues of various stages of cervical cancer was analyzed using the in situ hybridization method and compared with proliferative activity as estimated by Ki-67 immunostaining. To test whether expression of these components is reflected in enzyme activity, we determined the levels of the RNAs in cervical cancer and normal tissues and in primary and immortal keratinocytes by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and RNase protection assays and compared the results to telomerase activities as detected by telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay. In situ hybridization signals of hTR and hTERT were present not only in carcinoma tissues but also in normal epidermal layers. In many adenocarcinoma and fewer squamous cell carcinoma tissues, both signals were focally increased where high proliferative activity was present at the stages of dysplasia/metaplasia, in situ carcinoma, and invasive carcinoma. The level of bTERT, as quantitated by RNase protection assay, was not different between cancer and control tissues or immortal and a subset of primary keratinocytes and did not correlate with telomerase activity. These results indicate that expression of hTR and bTERT is up-regulated in at least a subset of neoplastic cells at an early stage of carcinogenesis and that unidentified factors, such as the modulation or coordination of its protein level with other products, may contribute to the activation of telomerase in cervical cancer.
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Project description:Telomerase is essential to maintain telomere length in most eukaryotes. Other functions for telomerase have been proposed but molecular mechanisms remain unclear. We studied Caenorhabditis elegans with a mutation in the trt-1 telomerase reverse transcriptase gene. Mutant animals showed a progressive decrease in brood size and typically failed to reproduce after five generations. Using PCR analysis to measure the length of individual telomere repeat tracks on the left arm of chromosome V we observed that trt-1 mutants lost approximately 125bp of telomeric DNA per generation. Chromosome fusions involving complex recombination reactions were observed in late generations. Strikingly, trt-1 mutant animals displayed a high frequency of telomeres with many fewer repeats than average. Such outlying short telomeres were not observed in mrt-2 mutants displaying progressive telomere loss very similar to trt-1 mutants. We speculate that, apart from maintaining the average telomere length, telomerase is required to prevent or repair sporadic telomere truncations that are unrelated to the typical 'end-replication' problems.
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Project description:The Caenorhabditis elegans dauer larva is a facultative state of diapause. Mutations affecting dauer signal transduction and morphogenesis have been reported. Of these, most that result in constitutive formation of dauer larvae are temperature-sensitive (ts). The daf-31 mutant was isolated in genetic screens looking for novel and underrepresented classes of mutants that form dauer and dauer-like larvae non-conditionally. Dauer-like larvae are arrested in development and have some, but not all, of the normal dauer characteristics. We show here that daf-31 mutants form dauer-like larvae under starvation conditions but are sensitive to SDS treatment. Moreover, metabolism is shifted to fat accumulation in daf-31 mutants. We cloned the daf-31 gene and it encodes an ortholog of the arrest-defective-1 protein (ARD1) that is the catalytic subunit of the major N alpha-acetyltransferase (NatA). A daf-31 promoter::GFP reporter gene indicates daf-31 is expressed in multiple tissues including neurons, pharynx, intestine and hypodermal cells. Interestingly, overexpression of daf-31 enhances the longevity phenotype of daf-2 mutants, which is dependent on the forkhead transcription factor (FOXO) DAF-16. We demonstrate that overexpression of daf-31 stimulates the transcriptional activity of DAF-16 without influencing its subcellular localization. These data reveal an essential role of NatA in controlling C. elegans life history and also a novel interaction between ARD1 and FOXO transcription factors, which may contribute to understanding the function of ARD1 in mammals.
| S-EPMC4199510 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Telomerase, the enzyme that elongates telomeres, is essential to maintain telomere length and to immortalize most cancer cells. However, little is known about the regulation of this enzyme in higher eukaryotes. We previously described a domain in the hTERT telomerase catalytic subunit that is essential for telomere elongation and cell immortalization in vivo but dispensable for catalytic activity in vitro. Here, we show that fusions of hTERT containing different mutations in this domain to the telomere binding protein hTRF2 redirected the mutated hTERT to telomeres and rescued its in vivo functions. We suggest that this domain posttranscriptionally regulates telomerase function by targeting the enzyme to telomeres.
| S-EPMC153184 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that elongates telomeres, allowing the stable maintenance of chromosomes during multiple cell divisions. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of the catalytic subunit of mouse telomerase, mTERT (mouse telomerase reverse transcriptase), an essential protein component of the telomerase complex. During embryonic development, mTERT mRNA is abundantly expressed in the whole embryo, especially in regions of intense proliferation. We found that the mTERT mRNA expression in both embryonic and adult tissues is independent of the essential RNA component of telomerase, mTR, and therefore, of the formation of active telomerase complexes. mTERT protein is present exclusively in tissues with telomerase activity, such as testis, spleen, and thymus. mTERT protein is barely detectable in the thymus of mTR-/- mice, suggesting that mTERT protein stability in this tissue may depend on the actual assembly of active telomerase complexes. Finally, we found that mouse and human telomerase catalytic subunit is located in the cell nucleus, and its localization is not regulated during cell cycle progression.
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Project description:To counteract replication-dependent telomere shortening most eukaryotic cells rely on the telomerase pathway, which is crucial for the maintenance of proliferative potential of germ and stem cell populations of multicellular organisms. Likewise, cancer cells usually engage the telomerase pathway for telomere maintenance to gain immortality. However, in ∼10% of human cancers telomeres are maintained through telomerase-independent alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathways. Here, we describe the generation and characterization of C. elegans survivors in a strain lacking the catalytic subunit of telomerase and the nematode telomere-binding protein CeOB2. These clonal strains, some of which have been propagated for >180 generations, represent the first example of a multicellular organism with canonical telomeres that can survive without a functional telomerase pathway. The animals display the heterogeneous telomere length characteristic for ALT cells, contain single-stranded C-circles, a transcription profile pointing towards an adaptation to chronic stress and are therefore a unique and valuable tool to decipher the ALT mechanism.
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Project description:The cAMP-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase A, PK-A) is multifunctional in nature, with key roles in the control of diverse aspects of eukaryotic cellular activity. In the case of the free-living nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, a gene encoding the PK-A catalytic subunit has been identified and two isoforms of this subunit, arising from a C-terminal alternative-splicing event, have been characterized [Gross, Bagchi, Lu and Rubin (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 6896-6907]. Here we report the occurrence of N-terminal alternative-splicing events that, in addition to generating a multiplicity of non-myristoylatable isoforms, also generate the myristoylated variant(s) of the catalytic subunit that we have recently characterized [Aspbury, Fisher, Rees and Clegg (1997) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 238, 523-527]. The gene spans more than 36 kb and is divided into a total of 13 exons. Each of the mature transcripts contains only 7 exons. In addition to the already characterized exon 1, the 5'-untranslated region and first intron actually contain 5 other exons, any one of which may be alternatively spliced on to exon 2 at the 5' end of the pre-mRNA. This N-terminal alternative splicing occurs in combination with either of the already characterized C-terminal alternative exons. Thus, C. elegans expresses at least 12 different isoforms of the catalytic subunit of PK-A. The significance of this unprecedented structural diversity in the family of PK-A catalytic subunits is discussed.
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Project description:Caenorhabditis elegans senses gentle touch in the six touch receptor neurons (TRNs) using a mechanotransduction complex that contains the pore-forming degenerin/epithelial sodium channel (DEG/ENaC) proteins MEC-4 and MEC-10. Past work has suggested these proteins interact with the paraoxonase-like MEC-6 and the cholesterol-binding stomatin-like MEC-2 proteins. Using single molecule optical imaging in Xenopus oocytes, we found that MEC-4 forms homotrimers and MEC-4 and MEC-10 form 4:4:10 heterotrimers. MEC-6 and MEC-2 do not associate tightly with these trimers and do not influence trimer stoichiometry, indicating that they are not part of the core channel transduction complex. Consistent with the in vitro data, MEC-10, but not MEC-6, formed puncta in TRN neurites that colocalize with MEC-4 when MEC-4 is overexpressed in the TRNs.
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Project description:Telomerase is an essential enzyme that maintains telomeres on eukaryotic chromosomes. In mammals, telomerase is required for the lifelong proliferative capacity of normal regenerative and reproductive tissues and for sustained growth in a dedifferentiated state. Although the importance of telomeres was first elucidated in plants 60 years ago, little is known about the role of telomeres and telomerase in plant growth and development. Here we report the cloning and characterization of the Arabidopsis telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene, AtTERT. AtTERT is predicted to encode a highly basic protein of 131 kDa that harbors the reverse transcriptase and telomerase-specific motifs common to all known TERT proteins. AtTERT mRNA is 10-20 times more abundant in callus, which has high levels of telomerase activity, versus leaves, which contain no detectable telomerase. Plants homozygous for a transfer DNA insertion into the AtTERT gene lack telomerase activity, confirming the identity and function of this gene. Because telomeres in wild-type Arabidopsis are short, the discovery that telomerase-null plants are viable for at least two generations was unexpected. In the absence of telomerase, telomeres decline by approximately 500 bp per generation, a rate 10 times slower than seen in telomerase-deficient mice. This gradual loss of telomeric DNA may reflect a reduced rate of nucleotide depletion per round of DNA replication, or the requirement for fewer cell divisions per organismal generation. Nevertheless, progressive telomere shortening in the mutants, however slow, ultimately should be lethal.
| S-EPMC24730 | biostudies-literature