Skip to main content

Telomere Length Analysis by Quantitative Fluorescent in Situ Hybridization (Q-FISH)

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Telomeres and Telomerase

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1587))

Abstract

Length is a functional parameter of telomeres, the nucleoprotein structures that protect chromosome ends. The availability of highly specific, high affinity probes for telomeric repeat sequences allowed the development of quantitative approaches aimed at measuring telomere length directly on chromosomes or in interphase nuclei. Here, we describe a general method for telomere quantitative FISH on metaphase chromosomes and discuss its most common applications in research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Abdallah P, Luciano P, Runge KW, Lisby M, Geli V, Gilson E, Teixeira MT (2009) A two-step model for senescence triggered by a single critically short telomere. Nat Cell Biol 11:988–993

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Der-Sarkissian H, Bacchetti S, Cazes L, Londono-Vallejo JA (2004) The shortest telomeres drive karyotype evolution in transformed cells. Oncogene 23:1221–1228

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hemann MT, Strong MA, Hao LY, Greider CW (2001) The shortest telomere, not average telomere length, is critical for cell viability and chromosome stability. Cell 107:67–77

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. de Lange T (2005) Shelterin: the protein complex that shapes and safeguards human telomeres. Genes Dev 19:2100–2110

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Liu D, O’Connor MS, Qin J, Songyang Z (2004) Telosome, a mammalian telomere-associated complex formed by multiple telomeric proteins. J Biol Chem 279:51338–51342

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Palm W, de Lange T (2008) How shelterin protects mammalian telomeres. Annu Rev Genet 42:301–334

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. de Lange T (2009) How telomeres solve the end-protection problem. Science 326:948–952

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Lingner J, Cooper JP, Cech TR (1995) Telomerase and DNA end replication: no longer a lagging strand problem? Science 269:1533–1534

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hug, N., and Lingner, J. (2006) Telomere length homeostasis, Chromosoma.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Forsyth NR, Wright WE, Shay JW (2002) Telomerase and differentiation in multicellular organisms: Turn it off, turn it on, and turn it off again. Differentiation 69:188–197

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Shay JW, Wright WE (2005) Senescence and immortalization: role of telomeres and telomerase. Carcinogenesis 26:867–874

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Kappei D, Londono-Vallejo JA (2008) Telomere length inheritance and aging. Mech Ageing Dev 129:17–26

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Armanios M (2009) Syndromes of telomere shortening. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 10:45–61

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Aubert G, Lansdorp PM (2008) Telomeres and aging. Physiol Rev 88:557–579

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Levy MZ, Allsopp RC, Futcher AB, Greider CW, Harley CB (1992) Telomere end-replication problem and cell aging. J Mol Biol 225:951–960

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Kipling D, Cooke HJ (1990) Hypervariable ultra-long telomeres in mice. Nature 347:400–402

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Cawthon RM (2009) Telomere length measurement by a novel monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR method. Nucleic Acids Res 37:e21

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Gil ME, Coetzer TL (2004) Real-time quantitative PCR of telomere length. Mol Biotechnol 27:169–172

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Zou Y, Sfeir A, Gryaznov SM, Shay JW, Wright WE (2004) Does a sentinel or a subset of short telomeres determine replicative senescence? Mol Biol Cell 15:3709–3718

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Jeyapalan JC, Ferreira M, Sedivy JM, Herbig U (2007) Accumulation of senescent cells in mitotic tissue of aging primates. Mech Ageing Dev 128:36–44

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Londono-Vallejo JA, DerSarkissian H, Cazes L, Thomas G (2001) Differences in telomere length between homologous chromosomes in humans. Nucleic Acids Res 29:3164–3171

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Baird DM, Rowson J, Wynford-Thomas D, Kipling D (2003) Extensive allelic variation and ultrashort telomeres in senescent human cells. Nat Genet 33:203–207

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Lansdorp PM, Verwoerd NP, van de Rijke FM, Dragowska V, Little MT, Dirks RW, Raap AK, Tanke HJ (1996) Heterogeneity in telomere length of human chromosomes. Hum Mol Genet 5:685–691

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Graakjaer J, Pascoe L, Der-Sarkissian H, Thomas G, Kolvraa S, Christensen K, Londoño-Vallejo J (2004) The relative lengths of individual telomeres are defined in the zygote and strictly maintained during life. Aging Cell 3:97–102

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Graakjaer J, Der-Sarkissian H, Schmitz A, Bayer J, Thomas G, Kolvraa S, Londono-Vallejo JA (2006) Allele-specific relative telomere lengths are inherited. Hum Genet 119:344–350

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Londono-Vallejo JA (2004) Telomere length heterogeneity and chromosome instability. Cancer Lett 212:135–144

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Cerone MA, Londoño-Vallejo JA, Bacchetti S (2001) Telomere maintenance by telomerase and by recombination can coexist in human cells. Hum Mol Genet 10:1945–1952

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Cerone MA, Ward RJ, Londono-Vallejo JA, Autexier C (2005) Telomerase RNA mutated in autosomal dyskeratosis congenita reconstitutes a weakly active telomerase enzyme defective in telomere elongation. Cell Cycle 4:585–589

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Marie-Egyptienne DT, Cerone MA, Londono-Vallejo JA, Autexier C (2005) A human-Tetrahymena pseudoknot chimeric telomerase RNA reconstitutes a nonprocessive enzyme in vitro that is defective in telomere elongation. Nucleic Acids Res 33:5446–5457

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Poon SS, Martens UM, Ward RK, Lansdorp PM (1999) Telomere length measurements using digital fluorescence microscopy. Cytometry 36:267–278

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Arnoult N, Shin-Ya K, Londono-Vallejo JA (2008) Studying telomere replication by Q-CO-FISH: the effect of telomestatin, a potent G-quadruplex ligand. Cytogenet Genome Res 122:229–236

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Silahtaroglu A, Pfundheller H, Koshkin A, Tommerup N, Kauppinen S (2004) LNA-modified oligonucleotides are highly efficient as FISH probes. Cytogenet Genome Res 107:32–37

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Baird DM, Coleman J, Rosser ZH, Royle NJ (2000) High levels of sequence polymorphism and linkage disequilibrium at the telomere of 12q: implications for telomere biology and human evolution. Am J Hum Genet 66:235–250

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Coleman J, Baird DM, Royle NJ (1999) The plasticity of human telomeres demonstrated by a hypervariable telomere repeat array that is located on some copies of 16p and 16q. Hum Mol Genet 8:1637–1646

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Gilson E, Londono-Vallejo A (2007) Telomere length profiles in humans: all ends are not equal. Cell Cycle 6:2486–2494

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Arnoult N, Saintome C, Ourliac-Garnier I, Riou JF, Londono-Vallejo A (2009) Human POT1 is required for efficient telomere C-rich strand replication in the absence of WRN. Genes Dev 23:2915–2924

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Work in the Londoño laboratory is supported by “La Ligue contre le Cancer”, the “Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale, FRM”, the “Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer, ARC”. I. O-G. was the recipient of a PhD fellowship from Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) and ARC.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arturo Londoño-Vallejo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Ourliac-Garnier, I., Londoño-Vallejo, A. (2017). Telomere Length Analysis by Quantitative Fluorescent in Situ Hybridization (Q-FISH). In: Songyang, Z. (eds) Telomeres and Telomerase. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1587. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6892-3_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6892-3_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6891-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6892-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics