Institution: | a Instituto de Biologia Experimental, Universidad Central de Venezuela. Apdo 47525, 1041-A Caracas, Venezuela b Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (IDEA), Caracas, Venezuela. Apdo. 17606, Caracas 1015-A, Venezuela c Departamento de Inmunologia de Micro, Inmuno e Parasitologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina Unifesp, R. Botucatu, 862, CEP 04023-062, S. Paulo, Brazil |
Abstract: | We present here a characterization of the telomeric and subtelomeric regions of Trypanosoma cruzi chromosomes, using three types of recombinants: cosmids from a genomic library, clones obtained by a vector–adaptor protocol, and a recombinant fragment cloned by a Bal31 trimming protocol. The last nine nucleotides of the T. cruzi overhang are 5′-GGGTTAGGG-3′, and there are from 9 to 50 copies of the hexameric repeat 5′-TTAGGG-3′, followed by a 189-bp junction sequence common to all recombinants. The subtelomeric region is made of sequences associated with the gp85/sialidase gene family, and/or sequences derived from SIRE, a retrotransposon-like sequence, and also the retrotransposon L1Tc. We discuss the possible implications of this genome organization. |