THE ENDS OF A FUNGAL SEX LIFE: FINDING THE TELOMERE LENGTH OF ASPERGILLUS NIDULANS SEXUAL SPORES, D. M Vargas Gonzalez1, Mithaq Vahedi1, Karen Kirk*1, Lake Forest College1, Department of Biology, Lake Forest, IL 60045, kirk@lakeforest.edu

Telomeres are a non-coding DNA sequences with bound proteins. They are located at the ends of linear chromosomes, which prevent the ends from fusion. The telomere length is associated with a cell’s life span and replication capacity. In comparison to germ cells, vertebrate somatic cells have relatively short telomeres and limited replication potential. While previous studies in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans have shown that fungal somatic cells have relatively short telomeres (Bhattacharyya & Blackburn, 1997, Nucleic Acids Res., 25, 1426-1431), the length of telomeres in germ cells remains unknown. Therefore, in this project we are studying Aspergillus nidulans ascospores (sexual spores) telomere length during meiosis. This fungusprovides a good model to study telomere length in meiotic cells because of its ability to produce asexual (conidia) and sexual spores in distinct cell types. We expect to observe longer telomeres in A. nidulans ascospores. In this study we have used different physical approaches to open up the ascospores and extract the genomic DNA. We are currently in the process of trying an enzymatic approach. For the purpose of measuring telomere length a PCR assay, developed in our laboratory, will be used. The results of this experiment will be a significant contribution to the scientific field given that more information about the model organism A. nidulans, which is used in different biological research, will be available for further studies.