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TERRA promotes telomerase‐mediated telomere elongation in Schizosaccharomyces pombe
Author(s) -
Moravec Martin,
Wischnewski Harry,
Bah Amadou,
Hu Yan,
Liu Na,
Lafranchi Lorenzo,
King Megan C,
Azzalin Claus M
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.15252/embr.201541708
Subject(s) - telomere , telomerase , schizosaccharomyces pombe , biology , schizosaccharomyces , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , telomere binding protein , dna , saccharomyces cerevisiae , gene , transcription factor , dna binding protein
Telomerase‐mediated telomere elongation provides cell populations with the ability to proliferate indefinitely. Telomerase is capable of recognizing and extending the shortest telomeres in cells; nevertheless, how this mechanism is executed remains unclear. Here, we show that, in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe , shortened telomeres are highly transcribed into the evolutionarily conserved long noncoding RNA TERRA . A fraction of TERRA produced upon telomere shortening is polyadenylated and largely devoid of telomeric repeats, and furthermore, telomerase physically interacts with this polyadenylated TERRA in vivo . We also show that experimentally enhanced transcription of a manipulated telomere promotes its association with telomerase and concomitant elongation. Our data represent the first direct evidence that TERRA stimulates telomerase recruitment and activity at chromosome ends in an organism with human‐like telomeres.