Conserved telomere maintenance component 1 interacts with STN1 and maintains chromosome ends in higher eukaryotes. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Orthologs of the yeast telomere protein Stn1 are present in plants, but other components of the Cdc13/Stn1/Ten1 (CST) complex have only been found in fungi. Here we report the identification of conserved telomere maintenance component 1 (CTC1) in plants and vertebrates. CTC1 encodes an approximately 140 kDa telomere-associated protein predicted to contain multiple OB-fold domains. Arabidopsis mutants null for CTC1 display a severe telomere deprotection phenotype accompanied by a rapid onset of developmental defects and sterility. Telomeric and subtelomeric tracts are dramatically eroded, and chromosome ends exhibit increased G overhangs, recombination, and end-to-end fusions. AtCTC1 both physically and genetically interacts with AtSTN1. Depletion of human CTC1 by RNAi triggers a DNA damage response, chromatin bridges, increased G overhangs, and sporadic telomere loss. These data indicate that CTC1 participates in telomere maintenance in diverse species and that a CST-like complex is required for telomere integrity in multicellular organisms.

published proceedings

  • Mol Cell

altmetric score

  • 4

author list (cited authors)

  • Surovtseva, Y. V., Churikov, D., Boltz, K. A., Song, X., Lamb, J. C., Warrington, R., ... Shippen, D. E.

citation count

  • 226

complete list of authors

  • Surovtseva, Yulia V||Churikov, Dmitri||Boltz, Kara A||Song, Xiangyu||Lamb, Jonathan C||Warrington, Ross||Leehy, Katherine||Heacock, Michelle||Price, Carolyn M||Shippen, Dorothy E

publication date

  • October 2009