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Short telomeres on human chromosome 17p

Nature Genetics volume 18, pages 76–80 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Human chromosomes terminate in a series of T2AG3 repeats1, which, together with associated proteins, are essential for chromosome stability2,3. In somatic cells, these sequences are known to be gradually lost through successive cells divisions4,5; however, information about changes on specific chromosomes is not available. Individual telomeres could mediate important biological effects as was shown in yeast, in which loss of a single telomere results in cell-cycle arrest and chromosome loss6. We now demonstrate by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q-FISH; ref. 7) that the number of T2AG3 repeats on specific chromosome arms is very similar in different tissues from the same donor and varies only to some extent between donors. In all sixteen individuals studied, telomeres on chromosome 17p were shorter than the median telomere length—a finding confirmed by analysis of terminal restriction fragments from sorted chromosomes. These observations provide evidence of chromosome-specific factors regulating the number of T2AG3 repeats in individual telomeres and raise the possibility that the relatively short telomeres on chromosome 17p contribute to the frequent loss of 17p alleles in human cancers.

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Author notes

  1. Uwe M. Martens

    Present address: Department for Hematology/Oncology, University Medical Center, Hugstetterstrasse 55, 79106, Freiburg I. Br., Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology/Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, 601 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z1L3, Canada

    Uwe M. Martens, J.Mark J.M. Zijlmans, Steven S.S. Poon, Wieslawa Dragowska, Jane Yui, Elizabeth A. Chavez & Peter M. Lansdorp

  2. Center for Integrated Computer Systems Research, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Steven S.S. Poon & Rabab K. Ward

  3. Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Peter M. Lansdorp

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  1. Uwe M. Martens
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Correspondence to Peter M. Lansdorp.

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Martens, U., Zijlmans, J., Poon, S. et al. Short telomeres on human chromosome 17p. Nat Genet 18, 76–80 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0198-76

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