Loss of telomere function in metazoans results in catastrophic damage to the genome, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis. Here we show that the mustard weed Arabidopsis thaliana can survive up to 10 generations without telomerase. The last five generations of telomerase-deficient plants endured increasing levels of cytogenetic damage, which was correlated with developmental anomalies in both vegetative and reproductive organs. Mutants ultimately arrested at a terminal vegetative state harboring shoot meristems that were grossly enlarged, disorganized, and in some cases, dedifferentiated into a callusoid mass. Unexpectedly, late-generation mutants had an extended life-span and remained metabolically active. The differences in plant and animal responses to dysfunctional telomeres may reflect the more plastic nature of plant development and genome organization.

Telomerase is an essential enzyme that maintains telomeres on eukaryotic chromosomes. In mammals, telomerase is required for the lifelong proliferative capacity of normal regenerative and reproductive tissues and for sustained growth in a dedifferentiated state. Although the importance of telomeres was first elucidated in plants 60 years ago, little is known about the role of telomeres and telomerase in plant growth and development. Here we report the cloning and characterization of the Arabidopsis telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene, AtTERT. AtTERT is predicted to encode a highly basic protein of 131 kDa that harbors the reverse transcriptase and telomerase-specific motifs common to all known TERT proteins. AtTERT mRNA is 10 -20 times more abundant in callus, which has high levels of telomerase activity, versus leaves, which contain no detectable telomerase. Plants homozygous for a transfer DNA insertion into the AtTERT gene lack telomerase activity, confirming the identity and function of this gene. Because telomeres in wild-type Arabidopsis are short, the discovery that telomerase-null plants are viable for at least two generations was unexpected. In the absence of telomerase, telomeres decline by approximately 500 bp per generation, a rate 10 times slower than seen in telomerase-deficient mice. This gradual loss of telomeric DNA may reflect a reduced rate of nucleotide depletion per round of DNA replication, or the requirement for fewer cell divisions per organismal generation. Nevertheless, progressive telomere shortening in the mutants, however slow, ultimately should be lethal.transfer DNA ͉ telomeres ͉ plant ͉ callus T he groundbreaking studies of Barbara McClintock (1, 2) and Hermann Muller (3) demonstrated that genome stability depends on the integrity of the telomere complex at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Although alternative strategies have been reported (4), telomere synthesis by telomerase is the primary mechanism for sustaining chromosome ends in eukaryotes. Telomeres and their maintenance by telomerase comprise a biological clock that influences cellular lifespan in mammals (5). Telomerase expression is confined primarily to the germ line and permanently regenerating tissues of the adult soma. In other cells, telomerase is turned off and telomeres progressively shorten with each division. Once telomeres shorten below a critical length, a DNA damage checkpoint is activated, leading to cellular senescence and death. Telomerase is reactivated in about 85% of all human tumors and telomere function is maintained indefinitely (6).Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase (7). The RNA subunit contains a templating sequence complementary to the G-rich strand of the telomere, whereas the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) harbors the catalytic activity for telomere repeat synthesis. Characterization of TERT subunits from a variety of protozoa, yeasts, and mammals has revealed several distinct reverse transcriptase motifs that comprise the polymerase active site as well ...

Telomerase activity is developmentally regulated in mammals. Here we examine telomerase activity in plants, whose development differs in fundamental ways from that of animals. Using a modified version of the telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay, we detected an activity in extracts from carrots, caulif lower, soybean, Arabidopsis, and rice with all the characteristics expected for a telomerase synthesizing the plant telomere repeat sequence TTTAGGG. The activity was dependent on RNA and protein components, required dGTP, dATP, and dTTP, but not dCTP, and generated products with a seven nucleotide periodicity. Telomerase activity was abundant in caulif lower meristematic tissue and undifferentiated cells from Arabidopsis, soybean, and carrot suspension cultures, but was low or not detectable in a sampling of differentiated tissues from mature plants. Telomerase from caulif lower meristematic tissues exhibited relaxed DNA sequence requirements, which might ref lect the capacity to form telomeres on broken chromosomes in vivo. The dramatic differences in telomerase expression and their correlation with cellular proliferation capacity mirror changes in human telomerase levels during differentiation and immortalization. Hence, telomerase activation appears to be a conserved mechanism involved in conferring long-term proliferation capacity.Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures at the ends of chromosomes that are essential for maintaining the integrity of the genome. The primary mechanism for generating and sustaining telomere DNA in eukaryotes is telomerase (1). A ribonucleoprotein with a reverse transcriptase activity, telomerase synthesizes the G-rich strand of telomere DNA using an internal RNA subunit as a template (2). This DNA addition compensates for the loss of terminal sequences that occurs during replication by the conventional cellular machinery (3, 4).Widespread among eukaryotes, telomerase has been detected in protozoa, yeast, amphibians, and mammals (5-11). Telomerase activity is developmentally regulated in humans (12, 13). In the differentiated human soma, telomeres shorten in a phenomenon attributed to the lack of detectable telomerase activity in these cells (14,15). Once telomeres shorten below a critical threshold, they appear to lose the capacity to effectively cap chromosomes and activate a damaged DNA response pathway that causes cell-cycle arrest (12). Hence, telomeres have been proposed to represent a biological clock that determines life span (16). A subset of normal human tissues express telomerase, including the regenerating tissues of the blood and epidermis (17-19) and the germ line (20). In addition, telomerase activity can be found in most human primary malignancies (13,21).The confinement of telomerase expression to the permanently regenerating tissues of the soma is not a feature shared by all organisms. In mice, many somatic tissues have detectable telomerase activity (11, 22) and telomeres do not shorten (23). However, more recent studies indicate that telomer...

In situ hybridization (ISH) for the detection of single- or low-copy sequences, particularly large DNA fragments cloned into YAC or BAC vectors, generally requires the suppression or "blocking" of highly-repetitive DNAs. C0t-1 DNA is enriched for repetitive DNA elements, high or moderate in copy number, and can therefore be used more effectively than total genomic DNA to prehybridize and competitively hybridize repetitive elements that would otherwise cause nonspecific hybridization. C0t-1 DNAs from several mammalian species are commercially available, however, none is currently available for plants to the best of our knowledge. We have developed a simple 1-day procedure to generate C0t-1 DNA without the use of specialized equipment.

Orthophosphate (Pi) is an essential but limiting macronutrient for plant growth. Extensive soil P reserves exist in the form of organic P (Po), which is unavailable for root uptake until hydrolysed by secretory acid phosphatases (APases). The predominant purple APase (PAP) isozymes secreted by roots of Pi-deficient (–Pi) Arabidopsis thaliana were recently identified as AtPAP12 (At2g27190) and AtPAP26 (At5g34850). The present study demonstrated that exogenous Po compounds such as glycerol-3-phosphate or herring sperm DNA: (i) effectively substituted for Pi in supporting the P nutrition of Arabidopsis seedlings, and (ii) caused upregulation and secretion of AtPAP12 and AtPAP26 into the growth medium. When cultivated under –Pi conditions or supplied with Po as its sole source of P nutrition, an atpap26/atpap12 T-DNA double insertion mutant exhibited impaired growth coupled with >60 and >30% decreases in root secretory APase activity and rosette total Pi concentration, respectively. Development of the atpap12/atpap26 mutant was unaffected during growth on Pi-replete medium but was completely arrested when 7-day-old Pi-sufficient seedlings were transplanted into a –Pi, Po-containing soil mix. Both PAPs were also strongly upregulated on root surfaces and in shoot cell-wall extracts of –Pi seedlings. It is hypothesized that secreted AtPAP12 and AtPAP26 facilitate the acclimation of Arabidopsis to nutritional Pi deficiency by: (i) functioning in the rhizosphere to scavenge Pi from the soil’s accessible Po pool, while (ii) recycling Pi from endogenous phosphomonoesters that have been leaked into cell walls from the cytoplasm. Thus, AtPAP12 and AtPAP26 are promising targets for improving crop P-use efficiency.

The natural diversity of plant metabolism has long been a source for human medicines. One group of plant-derived compounds, the monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs), includes well-documented therapeutic agents used in the treatment of cancer (vinblastine, vincristine, camptothecin), hypertension (reserpine, ajmalicine), malaria (quinine), and as analgesics (7-hydroxymitragynine). Our understanding of the biochemical pathways that synthesize these commercially relevant compounds is incomplete due in part to a lack of molecular, genetic, and genomic resources for the identification of the genes involved in these specialized metabolic pathways. To address these limitations, we generated large-scale transcriptome sequence and expression profiles for three species of Asterids that produce medicinally important MIAs: Camptotheca acuminata, Catharanthus roseus, and Rauvolfia serpentina. Using next generation sequencing technology, we sampled the transcriptomes of these species across a diverse set of developmental tissues, and in the case of C. roseus, in cultured cells and roots following elicitor treatment. Through an iterative assembly process, we generated robust transcriptome assemblies for all three species with a substantial number of the assembled transcripts being full or near-full length. The majority of transcripts had a related sequence in either UniRef100, the Arabidopsis thaliana predicted proteome, or the Pfam protein domain database; however, we also identified transcripts that lacked similarity with entries in either database and thereby lack a known function. Representation of known genes within the MIA biosynthetic pathway was robust. As a diverse set of tissues and treatments were surveyed, expression abundances of transcripts in the three species could be estimated to reveal transcripts associated with development and response to elicitor treatment. Together, these transcriptomes and expression abundance matrices provide a rich resource for understanding plant specialized metabolism, and promotes realization of innovative production systems for plant-derived pharmaceuticals.

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The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) gene BT2 encodes a 41-kD protein that possesses an amino-terminal BTB domain, a central TAZ domain, and a carboxyl-terminal calmodulin-binding domain. We previously demonstrated that BT2 could activate telomerase expression in mature Arabidopsis leaves. Here, we report its distinct role in mediating diverse hormone, stress, and metabolic responses. We serendipitously discovered that steady-state expression of BT2 mRNA was regulated diurnally and controlled by the circadian clock, with maximum expression in the dark. This pattern of expression suggested that BT2 mRNA could be linked to the availability of photosynthate in the plant. Exogenous sugars decreased BT2 expression, whereas exogenous nitrogen increased expression. bt2 loss-of-function mutants displayed a hypersensitive response to both sugar-mediated inhibition of germination and abscisic acid (ABA)-mediated inhibition of germination, thus supporting a role of ABA in sugar signaling in germination and development. Moreover, constitutive expression of BT2 imparted resistance to both sugars and ABA at germination, suggesting that BT2 suppresses sugar and ABA responses. In support of the previously described antagonistic relationship between ABA and auxin, we found that BT2 positively regulated certain auxin responses in plants, as revealed by knocking down BT2 expression in the high-auxin mutant yucca. Accumulation of BT2 mRNA was affected by a variety of hormones, nutrients, and stresses, and BT2 was required for responses to many of these same factors. Together, these results suggest that BT2 is a central component of an interconnected signaling network that detects and responds to multiple inputs.