Repair at the nuclear periphery

Telomere association with nuclear pores is critical not only for transcriptional silencing but also for efficient repair of double-stranded breaks in the subtelomeric region of budding yeast chromosomes, according to Therizols et al. (page 189).

As in many organisms, yeast telomeres localize to the nuclear periphery. To determine whether nuclear pore proteins are involved in telomere tethering, Therizols et al. looked for telomere localization in cells lacking functional Nup84 complexes, which are essential components of the pore. They found that the telomeres no longer associated with the nuclear periphery in these mutants.

As might be expected from previous work on transcriptional silencing, transgenes located in the subtelomeric region were no longer silent in Nup84 complex mutants, indicating that localization of the telomere to the nuclear periphery was functionally important.

Surprisingly,...