ALBERT

Description: Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a predictor of age-related disease onset and mortality. The association in adults of psychosocial stress or stress biomarkers with LTL suggests telomere biology may represent a possible underlying mechanism linking stress and health outcomes. It is, however, unknown whether stress exposure in intrauterine life can produce variations in LTL, thereby potentially setting up a long-term trajectory for disease susceptibility. We, therefore, as a first step, tested the hypothesis that stress exposure during intrauterine life is associated with shorter telomeres in adult life after accounting for the effects of other factors on LTL. LTL was assessed in 94 healthy young adults. Forty-five subjects were offspring of mothers who had experienced a severe stressor in the index pregnancy (prenatal stress group; PSG), and 49 subjects were offspring of mothers who had a healthy, uneventful index pregnancy (comparison group; CG). Prenatal stress exposure was a significant predictor of subsequent adult telomere length in the offspring (178-bp difference between prenatal stress and CG; d = 0.41 SD units; P 〈 0.05). The effect was substantially unchanged after adjusting for potential confounders (subject characteristics, birth weight percentile, and early-life and concurrent stress level), and was more pronounced in women (295-bp difference; d = 0.68 SD units; P 〈 0.01). To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence in humans of an association between prenatal stress exposure and subsequent shorter telomere length. This observation may help shed light on an important biological pathway underlying the developmental origins of adult health and disease risk.

Description: The telomerase ribonucleoprotein has a phylogenetically divergent RNA subunit, which contains a short template for telomeric DNA synthesis. To understand how telomerase RNA participates in mechanistic aspects of telomere synthesis, we studied a conserved secondary structure adjacent to the template. Disruption of this structure caused DNA synthesis to proceed beyond the normal template boundary, resulting in altered telomere sequences, telomere shortening, and cellular growth defects. Compensatory mutations restored normal telomerase function. Thus, the RNA structure, rather than its sequence, specifies the template boundary. This study reveals a specific function for an RNA structure in the enzymatic action of telomerase.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tzfati, Y -- Fulton, T B -- Roy, J -- Blackburn, E H -- GM26259/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- T32CA09270/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2000 May 5;288(5467):863-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0414, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10797010" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Local enrichment of HP1alpha at telomeres alters their structure and regulation of telomere protection Local enrichment of HP1alpha at telomeres alters their structure and regulation of telomere protection, Published online: 04 September 2018; doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05840-y Chromatin dynamics is thought to play an important role in the maintenance of telomeres, yet how has remained poorly understood. Here the authors locally enrich heterochromatin protein 1α (HP1α) at human telomeres to provide insights into the crosstalk between epigenetic regulations and structural dynamics at the telomeres.

Description: The RNA moiety of the ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase from the ciliate Euplotes crassus was identified and its gene was sequenced. Functional analysis, in which oligonucleotides complementary to portions of the telomerase RNA were tested for their ability to prime telomerase in vitro, showed that the sequence 5' CAAAACCCCAAA 3' in this RNA is the template for synthesis of telomeric TTTTGGGG repeats by the Euplotes telomerase. The data provide a direct demonstration of a template function for a telomerase RNA and demarcate the outer boundaries of the telomeric template. Telomerase can now be defined as a specialized reverse transcriptase.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Shippen-Lentz, D -- Blackburn, E H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1990 Feb 2;247(4942):546-52.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1689074" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Blackburn, E H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1990 Aug 3;249(4968):489-90.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2200120" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Telomeres are essential for chromosome stability, but their functions at specific cell-cycle stages are unknown. Telomeres are now shown to have a role in chromosome separation during mitosis. In telomeric DNA mutants of Tetrahymena thermophila, created by expression of a telomerase RNA with an altered template sequence, division of the germline nucleus was severely delayed or blocked in anaphase. The mutant chromatids failed to separate completely at the midzone, becoming stretched to up to twice their normal length. These results suggest a physical block in mutant telomere separation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kirk, K E -- Harmon, B P -- Reichardt, I K -- Sedat, J W -- Blackburn, E H -- GM26259/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1997 Mar 7;275(5305):1478-81.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0414, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9045613" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Blackburn, Elizabeth H -- Epel, Elissa S -- England -- Nature. 2012 Oct 11;490(7419):169-71. doi: 10.1038/490169a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA. elizabeth.blackburn@ucsf.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23060172" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified common variants of modest-effect size at hundreds of loci for common autoimmune diseases; however, a substantial fraction of heritability remains unexplained, to which rare variants may contribute. To discover rare variants and test them for association with a phenotype, most studies re-sequence a small initial sample size and then genotype the discovered variants in a larger sample set. This approach fails to analyse a large fraction of the rare variants present in the entire sample set. Here we perform simultaneous amplicon-sequencing-based variant discovery and genotyping for coding exons of 25 GWAS risk genes in 41,911 UK residents of white European origin, comprising 24,892 subjects with six autoimmune disease phenotypes and 17,019 controls, and show that rare coding-region variants at known loci have a negligible role in common autoimmune disease susceptibility. These results do not support the rare-variant synthetic genome-wide-association hypothesis (in which unobserved rare causal variants lead to association detected at common tag variants). Many known autoimmune disease risk loci contain multiple, independently associated, common and low-frequency variants, and so genes at these loci are a priori stronger candidates for harbouring rare coding-region variants than other genes. Our data indicate that the missing heritability for common autoimmune diseases may not be attributable to the rare coding-region variant portion of the allelic spectrum, but perhaps, as others have proposed, may be a result of many common-variant loci of weak effect.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736321/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736321/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hunt, Karen A -- Mistry, Vanisha -- Bockett, Nicholas A -- Ahmad, Tariq -- Ban, Maria -- Barker, Jonathan N -- Barrett, Jeffrey C -- Blackburn, Hannah -- Brand, Oliver -- Burren, Oliver -- Capon, Francesca -- Compston, Alastair -- Gough, Stephen C L -- Jostins, Luke -- Kong, Yong -- Lee, James C -- Lek, Monkol -- MacArthur, Daniel G -- Mansfield, John C -- Mathew, Christopher G -- Mein, Charles A -- Mirza, Muddassar -- Nutland, Sarah -- Onengut-Gumuscu, Suna -- Papouli, Efterpi -- Parkes, Miles -- Rich, Stephen S -- Sawcer, Steven -- Satsangi, Jack -- Simmonds, Matthew J -- Trembath, Richard C -- Walker, Neil M -- Wozniak, Eva -- Todd, John A -- Simpson, Michael A -- Plagnol, Vincent -- van Heel, David A -- 068181/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 068545/Z/02/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 076113/C/04/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 091157/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 100140/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- CZB/4/540/Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom -- ETM/137/Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom -- ETM/75/Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom -- G0000934/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0600329/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0601387/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0800759/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G1001158/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G1001158(95979)/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- JDRF 4-2001-1008/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT061858/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2013 Jun 13;498(7453):232-5. doi: 10.1038/nature12170. Epub 2013 May 22.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23698362" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3182531/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3182531/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium -- Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 -- Sawcer, Stephen -- Hellenthal, Garrett -- Pirinen, Matti -- Spencer, Chris C A -- Patsopoulos, Nikolaos A -- Moutsianas, Loukas -- Dilthey, Alexander -- Su, Zhan -- Freeman, Colin -- Hunt, Sarah E -- Edkins, Sarah -- Gray, Emma -- Booth, David R -- Potter, Simon C -- Goris, An -- Band, Gavin -- Oturai, Annette Bang -- Strange, Amy -- Saarela, Janna -- Bellenguez, Celine -- Fontaine, Bertrand -- Gillman, Matthew -- Hemmer, Bernhard -- Gwilliam, Rhian -- Zipp, Frauke -- Jayakumar, Alagurevathi -- Martin, Roland -- Leslie, Stephen -- Hawkins, Stanley -- Giannoulatou, Eleni -- D'alfonso, Sandra -- Blackburn, Hannah -- Martinelli Boneschi, Filippo -- Liddle, Jennifer -- Harbo, Hanne F -- Perez, Marc L -- Spurkland, Anne -- Waller, Matthew J -- Mycko, Marcin P -- Ricketts, Michelle -- Comabella, Manuel -- Hammond, Naomi -- Kockum, Ingrid -- McCann, Owen T -- Ban, Maria -- Whittaker, Pamela -- Kemppinen, Anu -- Weston, Paul -- Hawkins, Clive -- Widaa, Sara -- Zajicek, John -- Dronov, Serge -- Robertson, Neil -- Bumpstead, Suzannah J -- Barcellos, Lisa F -- Ravindrarajah, Rathi -- Abraham, Roby -- Alfredsson, Lars -- Ardlie, Kristin -- Aubin, Cristin -- Baker, Amie -- Baker, Katharine -- Baranzini, Sergio E -- Bergamaschi, Laura -- Bergamaschi, Roberto -- Bernstein, Allan -- Berthele, Achim -- Boggild, Mike -- Bradfield, Jonathan P -- Brassat, David -- Broadley, Simon A -- Buck, Dorothea -- Butzkueven, Helmut -- Capra, Ruggero -- Carroll, William M -- Cavalla, Paola -- Celius, Elisabeth G -- Cepok, Sabine -- Chiavacci, Rosetta -- Clerget-Darpoux, Francoise -- Clysters, Katleen -- Comi, Giancarlo -- Cossburn, Mark -- Cournu-Rebeix, Isabelle -- Cox, Mathew B -- Cozen, Wendy -- Cree, Bruce A C -- Cross, Anne H -- Cusi, Daniele -- Daly, Mark J -- Davis, Emma -- de Bakker, Paul I W -- Debouverie, Marc -- D'hooghe, Marie Beatrice -- Dixon, Katherine -- Dobosi, Rita -- Dubois, Benedicte -- Ellinghaus, David -- Elovaara, Irina -- Esposito, Federica -- Fontenille, Claire -- Foote, Simon -- Franke, Andre -- Galimberti, Daniela -- Ghezzi, Angelo -- Glessner, Joseph -- Gomez, Refujia -- Gout, Olivier -- Graham, Colin -- Grant, Struan F A -- Guerini, Franca Rosa -- Hakonarson, Hakon -- Hall, Per -- Hamsten, Anders -- Hartung, Hans-Peter -- Heard, Rob N -- Heath, Simon -- Hobart, Jeremy -- Hoshi, Muna -- Infante-Duarte, Carmen -- Ingram, Gillian -- Ingram, Wendy -- Islam, Talat -- Jagodic, Maja -- Kabesch, Michael -- Kermode, Allan G -- Kilpatrick, Trevor J -- Kim, Cecilia -- Klopp, Norman -- Koivisto, Keijo -- Larsson, Malin -- Lathrop, Mark -- Lechner-Scott, Jeannette S -- Leone, Maurizio A -- Leppa, Virpi -- Liljedahl, Ulrika -- Bomfim, Izaura Lima -- Lincoln, Robin R -- Link, Jenny -- Liu, Jianjun -- Lorentzen, Aslaug R -- Lupoli, Sara -- Macciardi, Fabio -- Mack, Thomas -- Marriott, Mark -- Martinelli, Vittorio -- Mason, Deborah -- McCauley, Jacob L -- Mentch, Frank -- Mero, Inger-Lise -- Mihalova, Tania -- Montalban, Xavier -- Mottershead, John -- Myhr, Kjell-Morten -- Naldi, Paola -- Ollier, William -- Page, Alison -- Palotie, Aarno -- Pelletier, Jean -- Piccio, Laura -- Pickersgill, Trevor -- Piehl, Fredrik -- Pobywajlo, Susan -- Quach, Hong L -- Ramsay, Patricia P -- Reunanen, Mauri -- Reynolds, Richard -- Rioux, John D -- Rodegher, Mariaemma -- Roesner, Sabine -- Rubio, Justin P -- Ruckert, Ina-Maria -- Salvetti, Marco -- Salvi, Erika -- Santaniello, Adam -- Schaefer, Catherine A -- Schreiber, Stefan -- Schulze, Christian -- Scott, Rodney J -- Sellebjerg, Finn -- Selmaj, Krzysztof W -- Sexton, David -- Shen, Ling -- Simms-Acuna, Brigid -- Skidmore, Sheila -- Sleiman, Patrick M A -- Smestad, Cathrine -- Sorensen, Per Soelberg -- Sondergaard, Helle Bach -- Stankovich, Jim -- Strange, Richard C -- Sulonen, Anna-Maija -- Sundqvist, Emilie -- Syvanen, Ann-Christine -- Taddeo, Francesca -- Taylor, Bruce -- Blackwell, Jenefer M -- Tienari, Pentti -- Bramon, Elvira -- Tourbah, Ayman -- Brown, Matthew A -- Tronczynska, Ewa -- Casas, Juan P -- Tubridy, Niall -- Corvin, Aiden -- Vickery, Jane -- Jankowski, Janusz -- Villoslada, Pablo -- Markus, Hugh S -- Wang, Kai -- Mathew, Christopher G -- Wason, James -- Palmer, Colin N A -- Wichmann, H-Erich -- Plomin, Robert -- Willoughby, Ernest -- Rautanen, Anna -- Winkelmann, Juliane -- Wittig, Michael -- Trembath, Richard C -- Yaouanq, Jacqueline -- Viswanathan, Ananth C -- Zhang, Haitao -- Wood, Nicholas W -- Zuvich, Rebecca -- Deloukas, Panos -- Langford, Cordelia -- Duncanson, Audrey -- Oksenberg, Jorge R -- Pericak-Vance, Margaret A -- Haines, Jonathan L -- Olsson, Tomas -- Hillert, Jan -- Ivinson, Adrian J -- De Jager, Philip L -- Peltonen, Leena -- Stewart, Graeme J -- Hafler, David A -- Hauser, Stephen L -- McVean, Gil -- Donnelly, Peter -- Compston, Alastair -- 068545/Z/02/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 075491/Z/04/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 084702/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 085475/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 085475/B/08/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 085475/Z/08/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 090532/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 898/Multiple Sclerosis Society/United Kingdom -- AI076544/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- CA104021/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- G0100594/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0400017/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0700061/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0901310/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0901461/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G19/2/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- K23N/S048869/PHS HHS/ -- NS032830/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS049477/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS049510/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS067305/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS19142/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS26799/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS43559/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- PDA/02/06/016/Department of Health/United Kingdom -- R01 NS026799/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- R01 NS049477/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- R01 NS049477-06A1/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- RR020092/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- RR024992/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- UL1 TR000448/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/ -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2011 Aug 10;476(7359):214-9. doi: 10.1038/nature10251.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21833088" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase synthesizes telomeric DNA by copying an internal RNA template sequence. The telomerase activities of the yeasts Saccharomyces castellii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae--with regular and irregular telomeric sequences, respectively--have now been identified and characterized. The S. cerevisiae activity required the telomerase RNA gene TLC1 but not the EST1 gene, both of which are required for normal telomere maintenance in vivo. This activity exhibited low processivity and produced no regularly repeated products. An inherently high stalling frequency of the S. cerevisiae telomerase may account for its in vitro properties and for the irregular telomeric sequences of this yeast.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cohn, M -- Blackburn, E H -- GM26259/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1995 Jul 21;269(5222):396-400.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0414, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7618104" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉