Characterization of Arabidopsis Telomeres

拟南芥端粒的表征

• 批准号: 8905580
• 负责人: Eric Richards
• 金额: $ 9.5万
• 依托单位: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1989
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1989-07-15 至 1990-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8905580&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Characterization; Arabidopsis; Telomeres

Telomeres are the specialized structures that form the termini of eukaryotic chromosomes. These structures are essential for the replication and maintenance of the genome. Telomeres have been extensively studied in lower eukaryotes but considerably less in known about higher eukaryotic telomeres. A higher eukaryotic telomere has recently been cloned from the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, providing the opportunity to study the telomeric regions of this organism as a model system. Two aspects of telomere structure and function will be studied. First, the nature and organization of the DNA sequences that lie adjacent to A. thaliana telomeres will be investigated. Second, the mechanism by which a broken chromosome end acquires a new telomere (i.e., telomere healing) will be studied using a chromosomal mutant of A. thaliana which carries a healed telomere. The healed telomere will be isolated and its structure compared to that of the original chromosomal site to determine how the healing event took place. In addition, the healed telomere, which resided proximal to a centromere, will be investigated as a potential tool for studying A. thaliana centromere structure. Characterization of essential structural components of chromosomes gives greater insight into a basic understanding of mechanisms used by cells to maintain the correct chromosome complement. Additionally, this information could be useful in engineering artificial chromosomes for plants, a technique which would add significantly to the already powerful repertoire of available molecular techniques.

端粒是形成真核染色体末端的专业结构。 这些结构对于基因组的复制和维持至关重要。 端粒已经在较低的真核生物中进行了广泛的研究，但对较高的真核端粒的了解却少得多。 最近，从开花植物拟南芥（Thaliana）克隆了一个更高的真核端粒，为研究该生物体的端粒区域作为模型系统提供了机会。 将研究端粒结构和功能的两个方面。 首先，将研究与A. thaliana端粒相邻的DNA序列的性质和组织。 其次，将使用A. thaliana的染色体突变体研究染色体末端损坏的染色体末端（即端粒愈合）的机制，该机制将研究thaliana的染色体突变体，该染色体突变体带有愈合的端粒。 与原始染色体部位相比，将隔离端粒及其结构，以确定愈合事件的发生方式。 此外，居住在落在丝粒近端的愈合端粒将被研究为研究A. thaliana Centromere结构的潜在工具。 染色体必需结构成分的表征使人们对细胞用于维持正确染色体补体的机制的基本理解有了更多的了解。 此外，此信息对于植物的工程人工染色体可能很有用，该技术将大大增加已经有效的可用分子技术曲目。