Telomeres (red) stay long if they are near the nuclear envelope (green).

TADDEI/GASSER

Two groups conclude that factors near telomeres alter the telomeres' nuclear positioning and thus their length.

The lengths of telomeres, which are caps for chromosome ends, are kept consistent by a pathway that “counts” the number of Rap1 molecules bound to telomeres. This pathway signals through Tel1 to recruit the lengthening telomerase enzyme. Cells missing Tel1 have shorter but stable telomeres, which argues for a second pathway regulating length. Searching for clues to the second pathway, Florence Hediger, Susan Gasser (Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland), and colleagues focused on the proximity of different telomeres to the nuclear envelope (NE)—one place telomerase is thought to concentrate.

Her team shows that the anchoring of individual telomeres near the NE is variable and correlates with the composition of the subtelomeric DNA sequence elements (STEs). The...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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