telomere length diversity in cattle breeds端粒长度在牛品种多样性.pdfVIP

Diversity 2010, 2, 1118-1129; doi:10.3390/d2091118 OPEN ACCESS diversity ISSN 1424-2818 /journal/diversity Article Telomere Length Diversity in Cattle Breeds 1, , 2, 3 1 Francesca Tilesi * †, Enea Gino Di Domenico †, Lorraine Pariset , Luigi Bosco , 1 3 2 Daniela Willems , Alessio Valentini and Fiorentina Ascenzioni 1 Department of Ecology and Sustainable Economic Development, Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, Italy; E-Mails: willems@unitus.it (D.W.); bosco@unitus.it (L.B.) 2 Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, La Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy; E-Mails: enea.didomenico@uniroma1.it (E.G.D.); fiorentina.ascenzioni@uniroma1.it (F.A.) 3 Department of Animal Production, Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, Italy; E-Mails: pariset@unitus.it (L.P.); alessio@unitus.it (A.V.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: francesca.tilesi@unitus.it; Tel.: +39-761-357-754; Fax: +39-761-357-751. † These authors contributed equally to this work. Received: 23 April 2010; in revised form: 26 July 2010 / Accepted: 24 August 2010 / Published: 31 August 2010 Abstract: Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein structures that have two important functions: (i) protection of the chromosomal ends from deleterious events such as chromosome fusion and degradatio