Subtelomeric chromosome instability in Plasmodium falciparum: short telomere-like sequence motifs found frequently at healed chromosome breakpoints

The stability of chromosome ends of the human malaria parasite P. falciparum was analysed using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay that detects potential chromosome breaks that have been healed by the addition of telomere repeats. The data show that the Pf332 and Pf87 genes located in subtelomeric positions of chromosomes 3 and 11, respectively, represent fragile sites. Breakpoints were observed in different regions of these genes. In the broken genes, the DNA sequences preceding the telomere addition sites generally have complementarity to the predicted RNA template of a P. falciparum telomerase ribonucleoprotein enzyme complex. We propose a model for the creation of new telomeres in P. falciparum adjacent to broken ends containing short telomere-like sequence motifs.