An Intramolecular G-Quadruplex
Structure Is Required
for Binding of Telomeric Repeat-Containing RNA to the Telomeric Protein
TRF2
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Abstract
Telomeric repeat-containing RNA (TERRA) is important
for telomere
regulation, but the structural basis for how TERRA localizes to chromosome
ends is unknown. Here we report on studies exploring whether the TERRA
G-quadruplex structure is critical for binding to telomeres. We demonstrate
that the telomeric protein TRF2 binds TERRA via interactions that
necessitate the formation of a G-quadruplex structure rather than
the TERRA sequence per se. We also show that TRF2 simultaneously binds
TERRA and telomeric duplex or G-quadruplex DNA. These observations
suggest that the TERRA G-quadruplex is a key feature of telomere organization