Structure-function relationships during transgenic telomerase expression in Arabidopsis

Abstract

Although telomerase (EC 2.7.7.49) is important for genome stability and totipotency of plant cells, the principles of its regulation are not well understood. Therefore, we studied subcellular localization and function of the full-length and truncated variants of the catalytic subunit of Arabidopsis thaliana telomerase, AtTERT, in planta. Our results show that multiple sites in AtTERT may serve as nuclear localization signals, as all the studied individual domains of the AtTERT were targeted to the nucleus and/or the nucleolus. Although the introduced genomic or cDNA AtTERT transgenes display expression at transcript and protein levels, they are not able to fully complement the lack of telomerase functions in tert -/- mutants. The failure to reconstitute telomerase function in planta suggests a more complex telomerase regulation in plant cells than would be expected based on results of similar experiments in mammalian model systems. © 2012 Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society.

Published in

Physiologia Plantarum
2013, volume: 149, number: 1, pages: 114-126

SLU Authors

• Mozgova, Iva

  • Masaryk University

UKÄ Subject classification

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.12021

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/132190