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A Novel Mechanism For Telomere Size Control In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Bibo Li, Arthur J. Lustig

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

One of the central requirements for eukaryotic chromosome stability is the maintenance of the simple sequence tracts at telomeres. In this study, we use genetic and physical assays to reveal the nature of a novel mechanism by which telomere length is controlled. This mechanism, telomeric rapid deletion (TRD), is capable of reducing elongated telomeres to wild-type tract length in an apparently single-division process. The deletion of telomeres to wild- type lengths is stimulated by the hpr1 mutation, suggesting that TRD in these cells is the consequence of an intrachromatid pathway. Paradoxically, TRD is also dependent on the lengths of the …