Expression of the telomeric retrotransposon HeT - A in Drosophila melanogaster is correlated with cell proliferation

Walter, Marika F.; Biessmann, Harald

doi:10.1007/s00427-004-0400-x

Cited by 23 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Although the read-through transcript is only a minor component of total w transcript levels in 11-5, and a majority of the w transcript is produced from the w promoter, we can conclude that a 2L TAS deficiency leads to a release of silencing on both telomeric w and telomeric retroelement promoters. The relative intensities of these two promoters as seen here are consistent with the observation that the HeT-A promoter is relatively weak (53). A 2L TAS deficiency may stimulate the w promoter directly; however, transcription initiated in the HTT array may also stimulate the w promoter, even in the absence of read-through by change of chromatin structure.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Incomplete replication, combined with transposition, leads to mixed tandem arrays of complete and 5Ј-truncated elements on the ends of Drosophila chromosomes (1,21,35,44). The level of retrotransposon transcription is correlated with cell proliferation, with the highest level of transcript being found in proliferating imaginal disc cells (20,53) and in adult gonads, the primary location of cell proliferation during adult life. Recent evidence (48) showed a role for the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery in the transposition of telomeric retroelements, especially of TART, to chromosome ends and thus a possible role for RNAi in the control of Drosophila telomere length.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Transcriptional Activity of the Telomeric Retrotransposon HeT-A in Drosophila melanogaster Is Stimulated as a Consequence of Subterminal Deficiencies at Homologous and Nonhomologous Telomeres

Frydrychová

Biessmann

Konev

et al. 2007

Molecular and Cellular Biology

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Drosophila melanogaster telomeres have two DNA domains: a terminal array of retrotransposons and a subterminal repetitive telomere-associated sequence (TAS), a source of telomere position effect (TPE). We reported previously that deletion of the 2L TAS array leads to dominant suppression of TPE by stimulating in trans expression of a telomeric transgene. Here, we compared the transcript activities of a w transgene inserted between the retrotransposon and TAS arrays at the 2L telomere in genotypes with different lengths of the 2L TAS. In contrast to individuals bearing a wild-type 2L homologue, flies with a TAS deficiency showed a significant increase in the level of telomeric w transcript during development, especially in pupae. Moreover, we identified a read-through w transcript initiated from a retrotransposon promoter in the terminal array. Read-through transcript levels also significantly increased with the presence of a 2L TAS deficiency in trans, indicating a stimulating force of the TAS deficiency on retrotransposon promoter activity. The read-through transcript contributes to total w transcript, although most w transcript originates at the w promoter. While silencing of transgenes in nonhomologous telomeres is suppressed by 2L TAS deficiencies, suggesting a global effect, the overall level of HeT-A transcripts is not increased under similar conditions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

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confidence: 99%

Transcriptional Activity of the Telomeric Retrotransposon HeT-A in Drosophila melanogaster Is Stimulated as a Consequence of Subterminal Deficiencies at Homologous and Nonhomologous Telomeres

Frydrychová

Biessmann

Konev

et al. 2007

Molecular and Cellular Biology

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“…HeT-A was shown to be transcriptionally active in proliferating somatic tissues such as brain and imaginal discs (George and Pardue 2003;Walter and Biessmann 2004). We observed no difference in the expression level of HeT-A in the actively dividing cells of the second mitotic wave in eye-antennal discs of spn-E 1 /+ and spn-E 1 / spn-E 1 larvae (Fig.…”

Section: Different Patterns Ofmentioning

confidence: 53%

Telomere elongation is under the control of the RNAi-based mechanism in the Drosophila germline

Savitsky¹,

Kwon²,

Georgiev³

et al. 2006

Genes Dev.

166

217

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Telomeres in Drosophila are maintained by transposition of specialized telomeric retroelements HeT-A, TAHRE, and TART instead of the short DNA repeats generated by telomerase in other eukaryotes. Here we implicate the RNA interference machinery in the control of Drosophila telomere length in ovaries. The abundance of telomeric retroelement transcripts is up-regulated owing to mutations in the spn-E and aub genes, encoding a putative RNA helicase and protein of the Argonaute family, respectively, which are related to the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery. These mutations cause an increase in the frequency of telomeric element retrotransposition to a broken chromosome end. spn-E mutations eliminate HeT-A and TART short RNAs in ovaries, suggesting an RNAi-based mechanism in the control of telomere maintenance in the Drosophila germline. Enhanced frequency of TART, but not HeT-A, attachments in individuals carrying one dose of mutant spn-E or aub alleles suggests that TART is a primary target of the RNAi machinery. At the same time, we detected enhanced HeT-A attachments to broken chromosome ends in oocytes from homozygous spn-E mutants. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-mediated control of telomeric retroelement transposition may occur at premeiotic stages, resulting in the maintenance of appropriate telomere length in gamete precursors.[Keywords: Telomere; RNAi; retrotransposon; HeT-A; TART; germline] Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

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“…Second, this domain has a histone H3 lysine 4 tri-methylation mark, which is associated with actively transcribed genes (Schübeler et al, 2004). However, no actively elongating RNA polymerase isoform (with CTD phosphorylated at serine 5) is detected in this region, nor are the transcripts of HeT-A and TART transposons produced in salivary glands (George and Pardue, 2003;Walter and Biessmann, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three distinct chromatin domains in telomere ends of polytene chromosomes inDrosophila melanogaster Telmutants

Andreyeva

Belyaeva

Semeshin

et al. 2005

Journal of Cell Science

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IntroductionTelomeres are specialized DNA-protein complexes that cap the termini of linear chromosomes. They compensate for incomplete DNA replication and contribute to the stability of chromosomes and karyotype (Muller, 1932;Pardue and Debaryshe, 1999;Biessmann and Mason, 2003). Telomeres also participate in nuclear architecture maintenance, and are known to associate with nuclear lamina (Hochstrasser et al., 1986;Marshall et al., 1996;Hari et al., 2001) or with nuclear matrix (de Lange, 1992;Luderus et al., 1996). However, the factors that underlie these phenomena, as well as the mechanisms of telomere functioning, remain poorly understood in Drosophila melanogaster.In eukaryotes, such as budding yeast, fission yeast and humans, telomeres are considered to be essentially heterochromatic (Perrod and Gasser, 2003). Heterochromatin is characterized by a high degree of DNA compaction, late replication in S phase, and by association with specific silencing proteins (Richards and Elgin, 2002). Intercalary (IH) and pericentric heterochromatin regions in many Diptera species are characterized by DNA underreplication and nonhomologous (ectopic) pairing of chromosomal regions in polytene chromosomes (Zhimulev, 1998). The question whether D. melanogaster telomeres are heterochromatic in

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Expression of the telomeric retrotransposon HeT - A in Drosophila melanogaster is correlated with cell proliferation

Cited by 23 publications

References 76 publications

Transcriptional Activity of the Telomeric Retrotransposon HeT-A in Drosophila melanogaster Is Stimulated as a Consequence of Subterminal Deficiencies at Homologous and Nonhomologous Telomeres

Transcriptional Activity of the Telomeric Retrotransposon HeT-A in Drosophila melanogaster Is Stimulated as a Consequence of Subterminal Deficiencies at Homologous and Nonhomologous Telomeres

Telomere elongation is under the control of the RNAi-based mechanism in the Drosophila germline

Three distinct chromatin domains in telomere ends of polytene chromosomes inDrosophila melanogaster Telmutants

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