Isolation of a Telomeric DNA Sequence from Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

There is substantial genetic and cytological evidence that the ends of a eukaryotic chromosome, the telomeres, are specialized structures which can mediate associations of chromosomes. On one hand, the telomeres appear to prevent the ends of chromosomes from fusing with one another (McClintock 1938, 1939, 1940, 1942). On the other hand, they promote transient, end-to-end associations of nonhomologous chromosomes during interphase and meiotic prophase in plant, insect, and mammalian nuclei (see White 1948; DuPraw 1970). This paper reports the finding of a DNA sequence, contained in the cloned segment Dm356, which is common to the termini of the five major chromosome arms of Drosophila melanogaster. Such a sequence may be a component of a common telomere structure and could explain such properties of telomeres as their capacity to associate.