%0 Journal Article %A D.C. Cook %A S. Zdraljevic %A R.E. Tanny %A B. Seo %A D.D. Riccardi %A L.M. Noble %A M.V. Rockman %A M.J. Alkema %A C. Braendle %A J.E. Kammenga %A J. Wang %A L. Kruglyak %A M.A. FĂ©lix %A J. Lee %A E.C. Andersen %T The genetic basis of natural variation in C. elegans telomere length %D 2016 %R 10.1101/051276 %J bioRxiv %P 051276 %X Telomeres are involved in the maintenance of chromosomes and the prevention of genome instability. Despite this central importance, significant variation in telomere length has been observed in a variety of organisms. The genetic determinants of telomere-length variation and their effects on organismal fitness are largely unexplored. Here, we describe natural variation in telomere length across the Caenorhabditis elegans species. We identify a large-effect variant that contributes to differences in telomere length. The variant alters the conserved oligosaccharide/oligonucleotide-binding fold of POT-2, a homolog of a human telomere-capping shelterin complex subunit. Mutations within this domain likely reduce the ability of POT-2 to bind telomeric DNA, thereby increasing telomere length. We find that telomere-length variation does not correlate with offspring production or longevity in C. elegans wild isolates, suggesting that naturally long telomeres play a limited role in modifying fitness phenotypes in C. elegans. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/05/02/051276.full.pdf