Publications related to G-quadruplex

Regulation and impact of TERRA R-loops at human telomeres

Telomeres are the nucleoprotein structures found at the ends of linear chromosomes. They ensure that the termini of chromosomes are not inappropriately recognized as sites of DNA damage, and are therefore crucial for genome stability. In spite of the heter ...

EPFL2023

Telomere protection against oxidative stress

Thu Trang Nguyen

Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures at the ends of linear chromosomes, being essential for the maintenance of genomic integrity. Telomeres have a unique structure which distinguishes chromosome termini from DNA damage sites. Shelterin complexes are the ...

EPFL2023

The THO complex counteracts TERRA R-loop-mediated telomere fragility in telomerase(+) cells and telomeric recombination in ALT(+) cells

Joachim Lingner, Rita Valador Fernandes

Telomeres are the nucleoprotein structures at the ends of linear chromosomes. Telomeres are transcribed into long non-coding Telomeric Repeat-Containing RNA (TERRA), whose functions rely on its ability to associate with telomeric chromatin. The conserved T ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2023

Identification and characterization of proteins that protect human telomeres from fragility

Anna Christina Näger

Difficulties to replicate telomeres - the ends of our chromosomes - can cause telomere shortening and genome instability. These difficulties are due to the repetitive DNA sequence and distinct structures at telomeres that challenge the semi-conservative DN ...

EPFL2022

Challenging endings: How telomeres prevent fragility

Joachim Lingner, Galina Glousker

It has become apparent that difficulties to replicate telomeres concern not only the very ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. The challenges already start when the replication fork enters the telomeric repeats. The obstacles encountered consist mainly of nonca ...

WILEY2021

A Role for Human DNA Polymerase λ in Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres

Joachim Lingner, Liuh-Yow Chen

Telomerase negative cancer cell types use the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) pathway to elongate telomeres ends. Here, we show that silencing human DNA polymerase (Pol λ) in ALT cells represses ALT activity and induces telomeric stress. In addi ...

2021

PRDX1 Counteracts Catastrophic Telomeric Cleavage Events That Are Triggered by DNA Repair Activities Post Oxidative Damage

Joachim Lingner, Wareed Ahmed

Telomeres are prone to damage inflicted by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidized telomeric DNA and nucleotide substrates inhibit telomerase, causing telomere shortening. In addition, ROS can induce telomeric single-strand DNA breaks (SSBs). The peroxired ...

2020

Human shelterin protein POT1 prevents severe telomere instability induced by homology-directed DNA repair

Joachim Lingner, Galina Glousker, Anna-Sophia Briod

The evolutionarily conserved POT1 protein binds single-stranded G-rich telomeric DNA and has been implicated in contributing to telomeric DNA maintenance and the suppression of DNA damage checkpoint signaling. Here, we explore human POT1 function through g ...

WILEY2020

Transcription Factors and DNA Play Hide and Seek

David Michael Suter

Transcription factors (TFs) bind to specific DNA motifs to regulate the expression of target genes. To reach their binding sites, TFs diffuse in 3D and perform local motions such as 1D sliding, hopping, or intersegmental transfer. TF-DNA interactions depen ...

2020

RADX: A novel single-stranded DNA-binding protein regulating telomere recombination

Anna-Sophia Briod

Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein structures present at the ends of linear chromosome. The telomeric DNA part is comprised of 5-15 kilo base pairs of double stranded TTAGGG repeats and it contains at the 3' end a single-stranded G-rich overhang of 50 ...

EPFL2019

Electronic Relaxation Dynamics of UV-Photoexcited 2-Aminopurine-Thymine Base Pairs in Watson-Crick and Hoogsteen Conformations

Rebecca Ann Ingle, Hugo Jean Baptiste Marroux

The fluorescent analogue 2-aminopurine (2AP) of the canonical nucleobase adenine (6-aminopurine) base-pairs with thymine (T) without disrupting the helical structure of DNA. It therefore finds frequent use in molecular biology for probing DNA and RNA struc ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2019

Functional analysis of the telomeric long non-coding RNA TERRA

Patricia Renck Nunes

Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures present in the end of linear chromosomes. In humans, a core complex of 6 proteins cap and protect the chromosome ends from being recognized as double-strand breaks and eliciting unwanted DNA damage and repair response ...

EPFL2019

Trypanosoma brucei UMSBP2 is a single-stranded telomeric DNA binding protein essential for chromosome end protection

Galina Glousker

Universal minicircle sequence binding proteins (UMSBPs) are CCHC-type zinc-finger proteins that bind a single-stranded G-rich sequence, UMS, conserved at the replication origins of the mitochondrial (kinetoplast) DNA of trypanosomatids. Here, we report tha ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2018

Telomeric states in cancer development

Jana Majerská

Telomere dysfunction can unleash genome instability or permanently arrest cell proliferation, and thereby contribute to the processes of cancer and aging. Proper telomere function relies on many proteins that form part of its structure. Some telomeric prot ...

EPFL2018

Short-lived AUF1 p42-binding mRNAs of RANKL and BCL6 have two distinct instability elements each

Lukas Kühn, Giovanna Ambrosini, Philipp Bucher, Barbara Grisoni-Neupert, Ramona Pauchard-Batschulat, Otto Hagenbüchle

Regulation of mRNA stability by RNA-protein interactions contributes significantly to quantitative aspects of gene expression. We have identified potential mRNA targets of the AU-rich element binding protein AUF1. Myc-tagged AUF1 p42 was induced in mouse N ...

2018

Tandem affinity purification of AtTERT reveals putative interaction partners of plant telomerase in vivo

Jana Majerská

The life cycle of telomerase involves dynamic and complex interactions between proteins within multiple macromolecular networks. Elucidation of these associations is a key to understanding the regulation of telomerase under diverse physiological and pathol ...

Springer Wien2017

Transcription facilitated genome-wide recruitment of topoisomerase I and DNA gyrase

Stewart Cole, Claudia Sala, Wareed Ahmed

Movement of the transcription machinery along a template alters DNA topology resulting in the accumulation of supercoils in DNA. The positive supercoils generated ahead of transcribing RNA polymerase (RNAP) and the negative supercoils accumulating behind i ...

Public Library Science2017

TRF2-Mediated Control of Telomere DNA Topology as a Mechanism for Chromosome-End Protection

Eric Aeby, Jing Ye, Bei Pei

The shelterin proteins protect telomeres against activation of the DNA damage checkpoints and recombinational repair. We show here that a dimer of the shelterin subunit TRF2 wraps similar to 90 bp of DNA through several lysine and arginine residues localiz ...

Cell Press2016

Telomere functions grounding on TERRA firma

Joachim Lingner

Long noncoding telomeric repeat-containing RNAs TERRAs - are transcribed in a regulated manner from telomeres throughout eukaryotes. TERRA molecules consist of chromosome end-specific subtelomeric sequences and telomeric repeats at their 3' ends. Recent wo ...

Elsevier Science London2015

CST for the grand finale of telomere replication

Joachim Lingner, Liuh-Yow Chen

Telomeric DNA at eukaryotic chromosome ends terminates with single stranded 3' G-rich overhangs. The overhang is generated by the interplay of several dynamic processes including semiconservative DNA replication, 3' end elongation by telomerase, C-strand f ...

Landes Bioscience2013