title: Identification of human Rap1: implications for telomere evolution.
abstract: It has been puzzling that mammalian telomeric proteins, including TRF1, TRF2, tankyrase, and TIN2 have no recognized orthologs in budding yeast. Here, we describe a human protein, hRap1, that is an ortholog of the yeast telomeric protein, scRap1p. hRap1 has three conserved sequence motifs in common with scRap1, is located at telomeres, and affects telomere length. However, while scRap1 binds telomeric DNA directly, hRap1 is recruited to telomeres by TRF2. Extending the comparison of telomeric proteins to fission yeast, we identify S. pombe Taz1 as a TRF ortholog, indicating that TRFs are conserved at eukaryotic telomeres. The data suggest that ancestral telomeres, like those of vertebrates, contained a TRF-like protein as well as Rap1. We propose that budding yeast preserved Rap1 at telomeres but lost the TRF component, possibly concomitant with a change in the telomeric repeat sequence.
authors.affiliation: The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oestreich
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: de Lange
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D000089804:Shelterin Complex; D016615:Telomere; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins; D035321:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 1; D035341:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 2
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D000089804:Shelterin Complex; C440809:TERF2IP protein, human; C440868:TINF2 protein, human; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins; D035321:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 1; D035341:Telomeric Repeat Binding Protein 2; C104344:taz1 protein, S pombe