the telosomeshelterin complex and its functionstelosomeshelterin复杂及其功能.pdfVIP

Review TThhee tteelloossoommee//sshheelltteerriinn ccoommpplleexx aanndd iittss ffuunnccttiioonnss Huawei Xin*, Dan Liu*† and Zhou Songyang* Addresses: *Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. †Cell-Based Assay Screening Service Core, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Correspondence: Zhou Songyang. Email: songyang@ Published: 18 September 2008 Genome BBiioollooggyy 2008, 99::232 (doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-9-232) The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at /2008/9/9/232 © 2008 BioMed Central Ltd AAbbssttrraacctt The telomeres that cap the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes serve a dual role in protecting the chromosome ends and in intracellular signaling for regulating cell proliferation. A complex of six telomere-associated proteins has been identified - the telosome or shelterin complex - that is crucial for both the maintenance of telomere structure and its signaling functions. Telomeres are specialized structures at the ends of eukaryotic TINT1/PTOP/PIP1) associate with these DNA-binding chromosomes that help to maintain genome integrity in proteins to form the core telosome (Figure 1). Various sig- eukaryotes by preventing chromosomal rearrangements or naling pathways originate from these core telomeric proteins chromosomes fusing to each other, and by enabling com- and their subcomplexes, and from this it has been possible plete replication of the ends of the linear DNA molecules. to deduce a telomere ‘interactome’ [11]. In this interactome, Telomeric DNA is composed of a series of sequence repeats the telosome serves as