ASPERGILLUS-NIDULANS MAINTAINS SHORT TELOMERES THROUGHOUT DEVELOPMENT

We report the identification and cloning of the telomeres of the filam entous fungus, Aspergillus nidulans. We have identified three classes of cloned chromosomal ends based on the telomere-associated sequences (TASs) and demonstrated that the telomeric repeat sequence is TTAGGG, identical to that found in vertebrates, including humans, and some low er eukaryotes. One category of telomere clones was found to contain in ternal, variant TAAGGG repeats. The A.nidulans telomeric tract length is striking ly short (4-22 repeats). We demonstrate that telomere leng th is remarkably stable in different cell types and at altered growth temperatures, suggesting a highly regulated mechanism for length contr ol.