Zakian V A
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544-1014, USA.
Annu Rev Genet. 1996;30:141-72. doi: 10.1146/annurev.genet.30.1.141.
A combination of classical genetic, biochemical, and molecular biological approaches have generated a rather detailed understanding of the structure and function of Saccharomyces telomeres. Yeast telomeres are essential to allow the cell to distinguish intact from broken chromosomes, to protect the end of the chromosome from degradation, and to facilitate the replication of the very end of the chromosome. In addition, yeast telomeres are a specialized site for gene expression in that the transcription of genes placed near them is reversibly repressed. A surprisingly large number of genes have been identified that influence either telomere structure or telomere function (or both), although in many cases the mechanism of action of these genes is poorly understood. This article reviews the recent literature on telomere biology and highlights areas for future research.
经典遗传学、生物化学和分子生物学方法相结合，已使人们对酿酒酵母端粒的结构和功能有了相当详细的了解。酵母端粒对于细胞区分完整染色体和断裂染色体、保护染色体末端不被降解以及促进染色体末端的复制至关重要。此外，酵母端粒是基因表达的一个特殊位点，因为位于其附近的基因转录会被可逆性抑制。虽然在许多情况下这些基因的作用机制尚不清楚，但已鉴定出数量惊人的影响端粒结构或端粒功能（或两者）的基因。本文综述了端粒生物学的最新文献，并突出了未来研究的领域。
