Harari Yaniv, Kupiec Martin
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
Microb Cell. 2014 Mar 1;1(3):70-80. doi: 10.15698/mic2014.01.132.
Telomeres are specialized DNA-protein structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomeres are essential for chromosomal stability and integrity, as they prevent chromosome ends from being recognized as double strand breaks. In rapidly proliferating cells, telomeric DNA is synthesized by the enzyme telomerase, which copies a short template sequence within its own RNA moiety, thus helping to solve the "end-replication problem", in which information is lost at the ends of chromosomes with each DNA replication cycle. The basic mechanisms of telomere length, structure and function maintenance are conserved among eukaryotes. Studies in the yeast have been instrumental in deciphering the basic aspects of telomere biology. In the last decade, technical advances, such as the availability of mutant collections, have allowed carrying out systematic genome-wide screens for mutants affecting various aspects of telomere biology. In this review we summarize these efforts, and the insights that this Systems Biology approach has produced so far.
端粒是真核生物染色体末端的特殊DNA-蛋白质结构。端粒对于染色体的稳定性和完整性至关重要，因为它们可防止染色体末端被识别为双链断裂。在快速增殖的细胞中，端粒DNA由端粒酶合成，端粒酶在其自身RNA部分内复制短模板序列，从而有助于解决“末端复制问题”，即在每个DNA复制周期中，染色体末端的信息会丢失。端粒长度、结构和功能维持的基本机制在真核生物中是保守的。对酵母的研究有助于阐明端粒生物学的基本方面。在过去十年中，技术进步，如突变体库的可用性，使得能够对影响端粒生物学各个方面的突变体进行全基因组范围的系统筛选。在本综述中，我们总结了这些工作以及这种系统生物学方法迄今所产生的见解。
