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Genetic and environmental factors affecting alternative lengthening of telomeres

影响端粒选择性延长的遗传和环境因素

基本信息

批准号：
10684837
负责人：
Josep M Comeron
金额：
$ 30.62万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-09-01 至 2027-05-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10684837
关键词：
Affect Aging Air Barrett Esophagus Biological Assay Biological Markers Biology Biosensor Bypass Cadmium Cancer Model Carcinogens Cell Aging Cell model Cells Characteristics Chromosome Structures Chromosomes Computer Models DNA damage checkpoint DNA metabolism Development Disease Early Diagnosis Environmental Exposure Environmental Pollutants Environmental Risk Factor Eukaryota Event Exposure to Frequencies Future Generations Genes Genetic Genetic Recombination Goals Human Individual Intervention Invaded Malignant Neoplasms Mediating Medical Methodology Methods Minority Modeling Molecular Molecular Profiling Molecular Structure Mutation Nature Outcome Oxidative Stress Paraquat Pathology Pathway interactions Population Population Genetics Precancerous Conditions Process Proteins Quantitative Evaluations Regenerative capacity Research Saccharomyces cerevisiae Saccharomycetales Signal Pathway Southern Blotting Structure Survivors System Techniques Telomerase Telomere Maintenance Telomere Pathway Telomere Recombination Telomere Shortening Testing Toxin Ulcerative Colitis Yeast Model System Yeasts age related assault cancer type carcinogenicity diagnostic tool environmental stressor human model innovation insight novel strategies oxidative damage precursor cell prevent senescence stem cells structural determinants telomere

项目摘要

Telomeres protect chromosome ends in eukaryotes. In the absence of telomerase, telomeres shorten, which eventually leads to senescence. A minority of cells, however, can escape senescence and stabilize telomeres by a recombination process called Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT). ALT is responsible for telomere maintenance in ~15% of cancers, but it also contributes to stabilization of telomeres in aging or stem cells. Thus, understanding the ALT mechanism is important to identify factors that can influence whether and how it occurs. It is also well known that exposure to various environmental stressors and air toxins influence all aspects of telomere biology and promote telomere-related diseases, including various types of cancer. However, the effects of environmental factors on ALT and telomere dynamics are difficult to study, owing to the absence of experi- mental systems to identify and follow the critical steps responsible for ALT establishment in human cells at the molecular level. A key gap in the study of ALT has been, until recently, the lack of quantitative assays. The goal of this research is to unravel the mechanisms of ALT by identifying genetic, structural, and environmental factors affecting ALT. This research takes advantage of a powerful system in yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, where ALT was originally discovered and where ALT can be followed from the beginning of telomere erosion through formation of survivor cells. This research will employ a unique combination of methods that were recently devel- oped by the applicants that enabled a quantitative study of ALT. This research, so far, has yielded three firsts in the field: (i) a population genetics-based assay that determined the frequency of ALT, (ii) ultra-long sequencing described the detailed structure of individual chromosome ends in ALT survivors, and (iii) a combination of com- putational modeling, Southern blot analysis and PacBio sequencing uncovered “molecular milestones” repre- senting different steps of ALT in large populations of yeast cells. Using these new approaches, this research will determine the effects of genetic, chromosome-structural and environmental factors during the steps of ALT, including: (i) the formation of ALT precursor cell populations initiated by eroded chromosome ends; (ii) the de- velopment of ALT survivors taking place in such populations; (iii) the frequency of ALT outcomes, and (iv) the molecular structure of chromosome ends in ALT survivors. This research will test the effect of environmental stressors on ALT, including oxidative damage from paraquat and the effect of cadmium, a ubiquitous environ- mental pollutant and a type I carcinogen. This will provide insight into molecular effects of environmental factors as well as illuminate new molecular mechanisms of ALT formation, potentially uncovering opportunities for med- ical interventions. Furthermore, this research will establish a robust system to evaluate the influence of other environmental contaminants on ALT, and to utilize telomere erosion and ALT formation as a new type of biosen- sor to assess the effects of various genetic changes and environmental assaults on genetic stability. Overall, this study of ALT in yeast is expected to serve as a roadmap to perform quantitative studies of ALT in humans.

端粒在真核生物中保护染色体末端。在没有端粒酶的情况下，端粒缩短，最终导致衰老。然而，少数细胞可以逃避衰老并稳定端粒这是一个叫做端粒交替延长（ALT）的重组过程。ALT负责端粒在~15%的癌症中，它可以维持端粒的稳定，但它也有助于衰老或干细胞中端粒的稳定。因此，在本发明中，了解ALT机制对于确定影响ALT是否发生以及如何发生的因素是很重要的。众所周知，暴露于各种环境压力源和空气毒素会影响到健康的各个方面。端粒生物学和促进端粒相关疾病，包括各种类型的癌症。但效果环境因素对ALT和端粒动力学的影响很难研究，由于缺乏实验，心理系统识别并遵循负责人体细胞中ALT建立的关键步骤分子水平。直到最近，ALT研究中的一个关键空白一直是缺乏定量测定。目标这项研究的目的是通过识别遗传、结构和环境因素来揭示ALT的机制影响ALT。这项研究利用了酵母中强大的系统酿酒酵母，其中 ALT最初被发现，并且ALT可以从端粒侵蚀的开始到形成幸存者细胞。这项研究将采用一种独特的方法，最近开发的组合，申请人提出的能够对ALT进行定量研究的报告。到目前为止，这项研究已经取得了三个第一，该领域：（i）基于群体遗传学的测定，确定ALT的频率，（ii）超长测序描述了ALT幸存者中单个染色体末端的详细结构，以及（iii）com-DNA的组合，推定建模、Southern印迹分析和PacBio测序揭示了“分子里程碑”，在大量的酵母细胞中检测ALT的不同步骤。利用这些新方法，这项研究将确定ALT步骤中遗传、染色体结构和环境因素的影响，包括：（i）ALT前体细胞群的形成由侵蚀的染色体末端启动;（ii）去- ALT幸存者的发生在这样的人群中;（iii）ALT结果的频率，和（iv） ALT存活者染色体末端的分子结构。这项研究将测试环境的影响对ALT的压力因素，包括百草枯的氧化损伤和镉的影响，镉是一种普遍存在的环境污染物，精神污染物和I型致癌物。这将提供深入了解环境因素的分子效应以及阐明ALT形成的新分子机制，潜在地揭示了医学的机会，的干预。此外，本研究将建立一个强大的系统来评估其他因素的影响，环境污染物对ALT的影响，并利用端粒侵蚀和ALT形成作为一种新型的生物工程，以评估各种遗传变化和环境攻击对遗传稳定性的影响。总的来说，酵母中ALT的这项研究有望成为进行人体ALT定量研究的路线图。