Dataset Information

Telomere-associated endonuclease-deficient Penelope-like retroelements in diverse eukaryotes.

ABSTRACT: The evolutionary origin of telomerases, enzymes that maintain the ends of linear chromosomes in most eukaryotes, is a subject of debate. Penelope-like elements (PLEs) are a recently described class of eukaryotic retroelements characterized by a GIY-YIG endonuclease domain and by a reverse transcriptase domain with similarity to telomerases and group II introns. Here we report that a subset of PLEs found in bdelloid rotifers, basidiomycete fungi, stramenopiles, and plants, representing four different eukaryotic kingdoms, lack the endonuclease domain and are located at telomeres. The 5' truncated ends of these elements are telomere-oriented and typically capped by species-specific telomeric repeats. Most of them also carry several shorter stretches of telomeric repeats at or near their 3' ends, which could facilitate utilization of the telomeric G-rich 3' overhangs to prime reverse transcription. Many of these telomere-associated PLEs occupy a basal phylogenetic position close to the point of divergence from the telomerase-PLE common ancestor and may descend from the missing link between early eukaryotic retroelements and present-day telomerases.

SUBMITTER: Gladyshev EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1890498 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Telomere-associated endonuclease-deficient Penelope-like retroelements in diverse eukaryotes.

Gladyshev Eugene A EA Arkhipova Irina R IR

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20070504 22

The evolutionary origin of telomerases, enzymes that maintain the ends of linear chromosomes in most eukaryotes, is a subject of debate. Penelope-like elements (PLEs) are a recently described class of eukaryotic retroelements characterized by a GIY-YIG endonuclease domain and by a reverse transcriptase domain with similarity to telomerases and group II introns. Here we report that a subset of PLEs found in bdelloid rotifers, basidiomycete fungi, stramenopiles, and plants, representing four diffe ...[more]

PMID: 17483479

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Project description:BackgroundTelomeres are nucleoprotein complexes at the end of linear eukaryotic chromosomes which maintain the genome integrity by regulating telomere length, preventing recombination and end to end fusion events. Multiple proteins associate with telomeres and function in concert to carry out these functions. Rap1 interacting factor 1 (Rif1), was identified as a protein involved in telomere length regulation in yeast. Rif1 is conserved upto mammals but its function has diversified from telomere length regulation to maintenance of genome integrity.ResultsWe have carried out detailed bioinformatic analyses and identified Rif1 homologues in 92 organisms from yeast to human. We identified Rif1 homologues in Drosophila melanogaster, even though fly telomeres are maintained by a telomerase independent pathway. Our analysis shows that Drosophila Rif1 (dRif1) sequence is phylogenetically closer to the one of vertebrates than yeast and has identified a few Rif1 specific motifs conserved through evolution. This includes a Rif1 family specific conserved region within the HEAT repeat domain and a motif involved in protein phosphatase1 docking. We show that dRif1 is nuclear localized with a prominent heterochromatin association and unlike human Rif1, it does not respond to DNA damage by localizing to damaged sites. To test the evolutionary conservation of dRif1 function, we expressed the dRif1 protein in yeast and HeLa cells. In yeast, dRif1 did not perturb yeast Rif1 (yRif1) functions; and in HeLa cells it did not colocalize with DNA damage foci.ConclusionsTelomeres are maintained by retrotransposons in all Drosophila species and consequently, telomerase and many of the telomere associated protein homologues are absent, including Rap1, which is the binding partner of Rif1. We found that a homologue of yRif1 protein is present in fly and dRif1 has evolutionarily conserved motifs. Functional studies show that dRif1 responds differently to DNA damage, implying that dRif1 may have a different function and this may be conserved in other organisms as well.

Dataset Information

Telomere-associated endonuclease-deficient Penelope-like retroelements in diverse eukaryotes.

Publications

Telomere-associated endonuclease-deficient Penelope-like retroelements in diverse eukaryotes.

Similar Datasets

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