The TEL patch of telomere protein TPP1 mediates telomerase recruitment and processivity.

ABSTRACT: Human chromosome ends are capped by shelterin, a protein complex that protects the natural ends from being recognized as sites of DNA damage and also regulates the telomere-replicating enzyme, telomerase. Shelterin includes the heterodimeric POT1-TPP1 protein, which binds the telomeric single-stranded DNA tail. TPP1 has been implicated both in recruiting telomerase to telomeres and in stimulating telomerase processivity (the addition of multiple DNA repeats after a single primer-binding event). Determining the mechanisms of these activities has been difficult, especially because genetic perturbations also tend to affect the essential chromosome end-protection function of TPP1 (refs 15-17). Here we identify separation-of-function mutants of human TPP1 that retain full telomere-capping funct

SUBMITTER: Nandakumar J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3521872 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature