Chinese hamster telomeres are comparable in size to mouse telomeres

We report here the results of a telomere length analysis in four male Chine se hamsters by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q-FISH). We were able to measure telomere length of 64 (73%) of ss Chinese hamster tel omeres. We could not measure telomere length in chromosome LO or in the sho rt arms of chromosomes 5, 6, 7 and 8 because of the overlaps between the in terstitial and terminal telomeric signals. Our analysis in the 73% of Chine se hamster telomeres indicate that their average length is similar to 38 kb . Therefore, Chinese hamster telomeres are comparable in length to mouse te lomeres, but are much longer than human telomeres. Similar to previous Q-FI SH studies on human and mouse chromosomes, our results indicate that indivi dual Chinese hamster chromosomes may have specific telomere lengths, sugges ting that chromosome-specific factors may be involved in telomere length re gulation.