Comparison of Plant Telomere Locations using a PCR-generated Synthetic Probe

We have generated a telomere-specific probe by the polymerase chain reaction and used it to localize chromosome telomeres of ten unrelated angiosperm species in in situ. Concatenation of the simple monomers, 5′-(TTTAGGG)-3′, derived from the sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana telomeres, yielded a stable, versatile and reliable probe that gave a signal of high intensity following fluorescence in situ hybridization. Most species, including those with known karyotype rearrangements, showed telomere label only at chromosome termini. These findings are discussed in the context of the chromosomal events responsible for generating and stabilizing karyotype change in plants.