Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on February 28, 2007
Nucleic Acids Research 2007 35(7):2116-2124; doi:10.1093/nar/gkm050
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nucleic Acids Research, 2007, Vol. 35, No. 7 2116-2124
© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Molecular Biology |
Telomeric localization of the modified DNA base J in the genome of the protozoan parasite Leishmania
Division of Molecular Biology and Centre of Biomedical Genetics, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
*To whom Correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +31 20 512 2880; Fax: +31 20 669 1383; Email: p.borst{at}nki.nl
Received October 11, 2006. Revised December 5, 2006. Accepted January 16, 2007.
Base J or ß-D-glucosylhydroxymethyluracil is a DNA modification replacing a fraction of thymine in the nuclear DNA of kinetoplastid parasites and of Euglena. J is located in the telomeric sequences of Trypanosoma brucei and in other simple repeat DNA sequences. In addition, J was found in the inactive variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) expression sites, but not in the active expression site of T. brucei, suggesting that J could play a role in transcription silencing in T. brucei. We have now looked at the distribution of J in the genomes of other kinetoplastid parasites. First, we analyzed the DNA sequences immunoprecipitated with a J-antiserum in Leishmania major Friedlin. Second, we investigated the co-migration of J- and telomeric repeat-containing DNA sequences of various kinetoplastids using J-immunoblots and Southern blots of fragmented DNA. We find only
1% of J outside the telomeric repeat sequences of Leishmania sp. and Crithidia fasciculata, in contrast to the substantial fraction of non-telomeric J found in T. brucei, Trypanosoma equiperdum and Trypanoplasma borreli. Our results suggest that J is a telomeric base modification, recruited for other (unknown) functions in some kinetoplastids and Euglena.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
D. K. Ekanayake, M. J. Cipriano, and R. Sabatini Telomeric co-localization of the modified base J and contingency genes in the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi Nucleic Acids Res., October 8, 2007; 35(19): 6367 - 6377. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
