title: Verrocchio, a Drosophila OB fold-containing protein, is a component of the terminin telomere-capping complex.
abstract: Drosophila telomeres are elongated by transposition of specialized retroelements rather than telomerase activity, and are assembled independently of the terminal DNA sequence. Drosophila telomeres are protected by terminin, a complex that includes the HOAP (Heterochromatin Protein 1/origin recognition complex-associated protein) and Moi (Modigliani) proteins and shares the properties of human shelterin. Here we show that Verrocchio (Ver), an oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB) fold-containing protein related to Rpa2/Stn1, interacts physically with HOAP and Moi, is enriched only at telomeres, and prevents telomere fusion. These results indicate that Ver is a new terminin component; we speculate that, concomitant with telomerase loss, Drosophila evolved terminin to bind chromosome ends independently of the DNA sequence.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare Charles Darwin Sapienza, Università di Roma, Roma 00185, Italy.
authors.forename: Grazia D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Raffa
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raimondo
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sorino
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cugusi
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cenci
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cacchione
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gatti
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ciapponi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011485:Protein Binding; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins; C551478:Ver protein, Drosophila; C471206:cav protein, Drosophila; C539342:moi protein, Drosophila; C083046:terminin