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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity; A Yin and Yang of Cell Senescence
Published on: May 22, 2013
The controversial telomeres of lily plants
R de la Herrán1, N Cuñado, R Navajas-Pérez
1Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain.
Abstract:
The molecular structure of the exceptional telomeres of six plant species belonging to the order Asparagales and two species of the order Liliales was analyzed using Southern blot and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Three different situations were found, namely: i) In the two Liliales species, Tulipa australis (Liliaceae) and Merendera montana (Colchicaceae), the chromosome ends display hybridization signals with oligonucleotides resembling telomere repeats of both plants (TTTAGGG)n and vertebrates (TTAGGG)n. ii) Asparagales species such as Phormium tenax (Hemerocallidaceae), Muscari comosum (Hyacinthaceae), Narcissus jonquilla (Amaryllidaceae) and Allium sativum (Alliaceae) lack both the plant telomere repeats and the vertebrate telomere repeats. iii) Two other Asparagales species, Aloe vera (Asphodelaceae) and an Iris hybrid (Iridaceae), display positive hybridization with the vertebrate telomere repeats but not with the plant telomere repeats. Southern blot hybridization revealed concurring results. On this basis, the composition of the telomere structure in this plant group is discussed.
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