Plant Cell Advance Online Publication Published on February 21, 2003; 10.1105/tpc.008623
Received October 15, 2002
Accepted December 5, 2002
Telomerase Dependence of Telomere Lengthening in ku80 Mutant Arabidopsis
Maria Eugenia Gallego 1, Nicole Jalut 1, and Charles I. White 1*
1
Unité Mixte de Recherche 6547 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,
Université Blaise Pascal 24, 63177 Aubière, France
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chwhite{at}univ-bpclermont.fr.
We have identified a ku80 mutant of Arabidopsis and show that telomerase
is needed to generate the longer telomeres observed in this mutant. Telomeres are
specialized nucleoprotein structures at the ends of chromosomes that permit cells
to distinguish chromosome ends from double-strand breaks, thus preventing chromosome
fusion events. Ku80 deficiency results in the lengthening of telomeres, a phenotype
also seen in an Arabidopsis ku70 mutant. Furthermore, homogeneous populations
of ku80 mutant cells show a steady increase in the length of telomere tracts,
which reach an equilibrium length and then stabilize. In contrast to that in mammals,
Ku80 deficiency in Arabidopsis cells does not cause end-to-end fusion of chromosomes.
This telomere lengthening is dependent on the presence of telomerase, although it
is not attributable to a significant increase in telomerase activity per se. These
results demonstrate the essential role of the Ku80 protein as a negative regulator
of telomerase function in plant cells.
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