Work

Long-read sequencing reveals telomere inheritance patterns from human trios

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Telomeres are essential for maintaining genomic integrity and are associated with cellular aging and disease, yet the factors influencing their inheritance across generations remain poorly understood. Leveraging PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing and 75 parent-offspring trios (n = 225) from the Genomic Answers for Kids program, we analyzed individual telomeres across chromosomes and their inheritance. Telomere length (TL) varied between chromosome arms in a way that was consistent in parents and offsprings, with average values ranging from 5000 to 8000 base pairs. Maternal and paternal TL together were a strong predictor of child TL (R 2 = 0.59). Notably, using telomeric variant repeats, we developed a tool that enabled allelic tracing for 53.3% of maternally and 49.9% of paternally inherited telomeres. In the child, paternally transmitted alleles were significantly longer than age-matched maternal ones (Δmean = 409 bp, p = 2.6e-05), particularly when from older parents (Δmean = 698 bp, p = 8.9e-05) and at chromosome arms with shorter average TL (Δmean = 752 bp, p = 1.6e-06). These findings reveal parent-of-origin effects and heritable influences on TL, providing novel insights into telomere dynamics and their potential implications in age-related disease susceptibility.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-78944-5

Authors: Yuxin Zhou, David R. Lougheed, Warren A. Cheung, Isabelle Thiffault, Tomi Pastinen, Guillaume Bourque