A mechanism for telomere-specific telomere length regulation
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Date
2026
Authors
Teplitz, G.M.
Pasquier, E.
Bonnell, E.
De Laurentiis, E.
Bartle, L.
Lucier, J.F.
St-Laurent, G.
Dawson, D.S.
Wellinger, R.J.
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Journal article
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Nucleic Acids Research (NAR), 2026; 54(1):gkaf1457-1-gkaf1457-13
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Gabriela M Teplitz, Emeline Pasquier, Erin Bonnell, Evelina De Laurentiis, Louise Bartle, Jean-François Lucier, Gabriel St-Laurent, Dean S Dawson, Raymund J Wellinger
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Abstract
Telomere length is a critical determinant of telomere function and hence chromosome stability. Critically short telomeres induce cellular senescence and division arrest, which eventually may lead to devastating age-related degenerative diseases. Conversely, maintenance of telomere length is a hallmark of cancer. How telomere set-length is established and molecular mechanisms for telomere-specific length regulation remained unknown. Here, we detail a mechanism of a telomere-specific set-length regulation that causes important differences in telomere length between individual telomeres in the same cell. Indeed, the results show that telomerase recruitment is modulated in cis in a telomere-specific way. Increased Sir4 abundance on yeast TEL03L subtelomeric heterochromatin leads to a set-length maintenance that is 1.5 to 2 times higher than on other telomeres. Remarkably, the distal 15 kb of TEL03L are sufficient to transfer this telomere-specific set-length regulation to another chromosome end. Furthermore, a mutation in the telomere boundary element protein Tbf1 allow increased Sir4 binding on telomeres and hence results in longer set-lengths. The results, therefore, will force a rethinking of telomere length regulation away from the generalized view that all telomeres are treated the same, to a more telomere-specific treatment.
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Available online 8 January 2026
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© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com