The Ku subunit of telomerase binds Sir4 to recruit telomerase to lengthen telomeres in S. cerevisiae

  1. Evan P Hass
  2. David C Zappulla  Is a corresponding author
  1. Johns Hopkins University, United States

Abstract

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in humans, the telomerase RNA subunit is bound by Ku, a ring-shaped protein heterodimer best known for its function in DNA repair. Ku binding to yeast telomerase RNA promotes telomere lengthening and telomerase recruitment to telomeres, but how this is achieved remains unknown. Using telomere-length analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation, we show that Sir4 - a previously identified Ku-binding protein that is a component of telomeric silent chromatin - is required for Ku-mediated telomere lengthening and telomerase recruitment. We also find that specifically tethering Sir4 directly to Ku-binding-defective telomerase RNA restores otherwise-shortened telomeres to wild-type length. These findings suggest that Sir4 is the telomere-bound target of Ku-mediated telomerase recruitment and provide one mechanism for how the Sir4-competing Rif1 and Rif2 proteins negatively regulate telomere length in yeast.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Evan P Hass

    Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. David C Zappulla

    Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
    For correspondence
    zappulla@jhu.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Kevin Struhl, Harvard Medical School, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: March 31, 2015
  2. Accepted: July 26, 2015
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: July 28, 2015 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: August 28, 2015 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2015, Hass & Zappulla

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Evan P Hass
  2. David C Zappulla
(2015)
The Ku subunit of telomerase binds Sir4 to recruit telomerase to lengthen telomeres in S. cerevisiae
eLife 4:e07750.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07750

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