A METHOD FOR INFLUENCING CHROMOSOME STABILITY

摘要

In an effort to determine the precise eventstaking place during telomere replication in yeast, theApplicant realized that mutations in either gene encoding theyeast homologues of the Ku-protein lead to an altered terminalDNA structure. In cells lacking Ku, telomeres have anoverhang of 50-90 bases of the 3'-end even in cells outsideS-phase. In addition, using an epitope tagged version of Yku80pand an in vivo crosslinking protocol, DNA fragments containingtelomeric repeats could be immunoprecipitated from cell freeextracts. These results suggest that the Ku-protein plays adirect role in maintaining a normal DNA end-structure on yeastchromosomes, conceivably by functioning as a terminus-bindingfactor.