2 research outputs found
Proteolysis-dependent regulation of telomerase
Eukaryotes maintain their genomes in the form of linear chromosomes. Because
of the inability of the replication machinery to copy linear DNA molecules to the
very end, the chromosomes were predicted to become shorter with every round
of replication. This phenomenon was called “the end replication problem” by
Watson and Olovnikov. Later, it has been discovered that eukaryotes have
evolved telomeres, non-coding DNA repeats at the chromosomal ends, and
telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein that extends the telomeres to overcome “the end
replication problem”. Telomerase is known to be downregulated in humans
through the development resulting in progressive telomere shortening and
replicative senescence with age. This is believed to be one of the major tumour
suppressor mechanisms. However, most cancer cells reactivate telomerase to
become immortal. Thus, understating telomerase regulation is one of the central
questions in the field of cancer biology.
Telomerase complex formation involves several component maturation and
assembly steps. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the steady-state levels of the
catalytic subunit Est2 are significantly reduced when its interaction with the
telomerase RNA component TLC1 is impaired. I have found that Est2 not bound
to TLC1 undergoes degradation in a proteasome-dependent manner. Loss of
Tom1, an E3-ubiquitin ligase, leads to an increase in the Est2 levels accompanied
by a decrease in the Est2 degradation rate. Consistent with these findings, tom1
mutants have longer telomeres. Furthermore, Tom1 physically interacts with Est2,
specifically through recognizing its RNA binding domain.
Disruption of TOM1 does inhibit proteolysis of Est2 but does not stop it completely,
suggesting the existence of an additional, Tom1-independent degradation
pathway of Est2. Interestingly, the Est2 levels are reduced in cells grown at
elevated temperatures. This decrease is caused by the temperature-triggered
degradation of Est2. This degradation resembles proteolysis through the protein
quality control system, however, the exact regulator of this mechanism is yet
unknown.
I propose that regulation of the telomerase through the proteolysis contributes to
telomere length homeostasis indirectly through controlling the levels of Est2. The
human Est2 homologue hTERT is also degraded in a proteasome-dependent
manner. Thus, the proteolysis-dependent regulation of the telomerase might be
evolutionarily conserved. RNA-free hTERT is believed to have extra-telomeric
roles and this regulation might balance its telomeric and extra-telomeric functions
A Type II-B Cas9 nuclease with minimized off-targets and reduced chromosomal translocations in vivo
Abstract Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) and derived enzymes are widely used as genome editors, but their promiscuous nuclease activity often induces undesired mutations and chromosomal rearrangements. Several strategies for mapping off-target effects have emerged, but they suffer from limited sensitivity. To increase the detection sensitivity, we develop an off-target assessment workflow that uses Duplex Sequencing. The strategy increases sensitivity by one order of magnitude, identifying previously unknown SpCas9’s off-target mutations in the humanized PCSK9 mouse model. To reduce off-target risks, we perform a bioinformatic search and identify a high-fidelity Cas9 variant of the II-B subfamily from Parasutterella secunda (PsCas9). PsCas9 shows improved specificity as compared to SpCas9 across multiple tested sites, both in vitro and in vivo, including the PCSK9 site. In the future, while PsCas9 will offer an alternative to SpCas9 for research and clinical use, the Duplex Sequencing workflow will enable a more sensitive assessment of Cas9 editing outcomes