Strand-specific postreplicative processing of mammalian telomeres

S. M. Bailey, M. N. Cornforth, A. Kurimasa, D. J. Chen, E. H. Goodwin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

215 Scopus citations

Abstract

Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein structures that stabilize the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes. In mammalian cells, abrogation of telomeric repeat binding factor TRF2 or DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) activity causes end-to-end chromosomal fusion, thus establishing an essential role for these proteins in telomere function. Here we show that TRF2-mediated end-capping occurs after telomere replication. The postreplicative requirement for TRF2 and DNA-PKcs, the catalytic subunit of DNA-PK, is confined to only haft of the telomeres, namely, those that were produced by leading-strand DNA synthesis. These results demonstrate a crucial difference in postreplicative processing of telomeres that is linked to their mode of replication.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2462-2465
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume293
Issue number5539
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 28 2001
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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