Abstract:

The ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, known as telomeres, play crucial  roles as guardians of genome stability.  Telomeric DNA is maintained  by either the ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase pathway or  recombination pathway.  To study the mechanisms of telomerase  activity regulation, we have been using budding yeast S. cerevisiae  as a model.  We found that Est1, a subunit of yeast telomerase  holoenzyme, has the G-quadruplex promoting activity, and this  activity is required for telomerase activation in vivo.  We also  found that a conserved single-stranded telomeric DNA binding protein  Sua5 positively regulates telomerase activity in telomerase positive  cells, and is required for telomere-telomere recombination in  telomerase negative cells.

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