Telomere sequence variability in genotypes from natural plant populations: unusual block-organized double-monomer terminal telomeric arrays
Belyayev A. Kalendar R. Josefiová J. Paštová L. Habibi F. Mahelka V. Mandák B. Krak K.
December 2023BioMed Central Ltd
BMC Genomics
2023#24Issue 1
Background: Telomeres are the nucleoprotein complexes that physically cap the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Most plants possess Arabidopsis-type telomere sequences (TSs). In addition to terminal TSs, more diverse interstitial TSs exists in plants. Although telomeres have been sufficiently studied, the actual diversity of TSs in land plants is underestimated. Results: We investigate genotypes from seven natural populations with contrasting environments of four Chenopodium species to reveal the variability in TSs by analyzing Oxford Nanopore reads. Fluorescent in situ hybridization was used to localize telomeric repeats on chromosomes. We identified a number of derivative monomers that arise in part of both terminal and interstitial telomeric arrays of a single genotype. The former presents a case of block-organized double-monomer telomers, where blocks of Arabidopsis-type TTTAGGG motifs were interspersed with blocks of derivative TTTAAAA motifs. The latter is an integral part of the satellitome with transformations specific to the inactive genome fraction. Conclusions: We suggested two alternative models for the possible formation of derivative monomers from telomeric heptamer motifs of Arabidopsis-type. It was assumed that derivatization of TSs is a ubiquitous process in the plant genome but occurrence and frequencies of derivatives may be genotype-specific. We also propose that the formation of non-canonical arrays of TSs, especially at chromosomal termini, may be a source for genomic variability in nature.
Evolution , Oxford nanopore sequencing , Plant , Population , Species , Telomere
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Zámek 1, CZ-252 43, Průhonice, Czech Republic
Institute of Biotechnology HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland
National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Ave, Nur- Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Praha, Suchdol, 165 00, Czech Republic
Institute of Botany
Institute of Biotechnology HiLIFE
National Laboratory Astana
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026