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Question:

How does the telomeric repeating sequence vary in non-vertebrate Eukaryotes? If you know the repeating sequence of a given species I would appreciate hearing it.

Background:

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes.

In vertebrates the conserved telomeric repeating sequence is "TTAGGG".

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A database that answers the question, charting telomere repeat sequences for all known species, is: http://telomerase.asu.edu/sequences_telomere.html

For example in Yeast:

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  • TTAGG telomeric repeats have been found in several insects. From Sahara, Marek & Traut (1):

(TTAGG)n-containing telomeres were found in three Lepidoptera species, the silkworm Bombyx mori (in which the telomeric sequence was recently discovered), the flour moth Ephestia kuehniella, and the wax moth Galleria mellonella, in one species of Hymenoptera, the honey bee Apis mellifera, in one species of Coleoptera, the bark beetle Ips typographus, in one species of Orthoptera, the locust Locusta migratoria, and in a crustacean, the amphipod Gammarus pulex

  • C. elegans have TTAGGC repeats.(2)

  • The TTAGGG motif is also common in filamentous fungi, while Saccharomyces cerevisiae telomeres have TG(TG)(TG) repeats. Many plants have TTTAGGG repeats.(3)

For additional references, see the introduction in Wu et al.(4)

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  • $\begingroup$ Cheers jarlemag, +1. I wont tick yet till more answers come through :) $\endgroup$ – hello_there_andy Mar 6 '14 at 12:34

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