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A telomerase component is defective in the human disease dyskeratosis congenita

Nature volume 402, pages 551–555 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The X-linked form of the human disease dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) is caused by mutations in the gene encoding dyskerin1. Sufferers have defects in highly regenerative tissues such as skin and bone marrow, chromosome instability and a predisposition to develop certain types of malignancy. Dyskerin is a putative pseudouridine synthase, and it has been suggested that DKC may be caused by a defect in ribosomal RNA processing. Here we show that dyskerin is associated not only with H/ACA small nucleolar RNAs2, but also with human telomerase RNA, which contains an H/ACA RNA motif3. Telomerase adds simple sequence repeats to chromosome ends using an internal region of its RNA as a template4, and is required for the indefinite proliferation of primary human cells5. We find that primary fibroblasts and lymphoblasts from DKC-affected males are not detectably deficient in conventional H/ACA small nucleolar RNA accumulation or function; however, DKC cells have a lower level of telomerase RNA, produce lower levels of telomerase activity and have shorter telomeres than matched normal cells. The pathology of DKC is consistent with compromised telomerase function leading to a defect in telomere maintenance, which may limit the proliferative capacity of human somatic cells in epithelia and blood.

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Figure 1: Co-purification of telomerase RNA, telomerase activity, hTERT and dyskerin.
Figure 2: Analysis of rRNA and dyskerin.
Figure 3: Reduced hTR and short telomeres in DKC cells.
Figure 4: Reduced telomerase activity in DKC fibroblasts.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Fischer for expert tissue culture assistance; Amgen and the Weinberg laboratory for their hTERT expression constructs; and D. Rio, M. Botchan, J. Rine and members of the Collins laboratory for comments on the manuscript. J.R.M. is a predoctoral fellow of the N.S.F.

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  1. Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, 401 Barker Hall, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-3204, California, USA

    James R. Mitchell, Emily Wood & Kathleen Collins

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  1. James R. Mitchell
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Correspondence to Kathleen Collins.

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Mitchell, J., Wood, E. & Collins, K. A telomerase component is defective in the human disease dyskeratosis congenita. Nature 402, 551–555 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/990141

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