The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Jia-Cheng Liu
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Xin Man
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Xin Gu
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Ting-Yi Li
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Chen Cai
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
Ming-Hong He
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yangyang Shao
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Ning Lu
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Xiaoli Xue
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Zhongjun Qin
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
Telomeres define the natural ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and are crucial for chromosomal stability. The budding yeast Cdc13, Stn1 and Ten1 proteins form a heterotrimeric complex, and the inactivation of any of its subunits leads to a uniformly lethal phenotype due to telomere deprotection. Although Cdc13, Stn1 and Ten1 seem to belong to an epistasis group, it remains unclear whether they function differently in telomere protection. Here, we employed the single-linear-chromosome yeast SY14, and surprisingly found that the deletion of CDC13 leads to telomere erosion and intrachromosome end-to-end fusion, which depends on Rad52 but not Yku. Interestingly, the emergence frequency of survivors in the SY14 cdc13Δ mutant was ~29 fold higher than that in either the stn1Δ or ten1Δ mutant, demonstrating a predominant role of Cdc13 in inhibiting telomere fusion. Chromosomal fusion readily occurred in the telomerase-null SY14 strain, further verifying the default role of intact telomeres in inhibiting chromosome fusion.
