TY - JOUR
T1 - Ku
T2 - A multifunctional protein involved in telomere maintenance
AU - Fisher, Timothy S.
AU - Zakian, Virginia A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We apologize to our colleagues whose work was not cited due to space limitations. Work on Ku in the Zakian Laboratory is supported by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant GM43265. T.S.F. is a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Research Fellow.
PY - 2005/11/21
Y1 - 2005/11/21
N2 - The DNA-binding protein Ku plays a critical role in a variety of cellular processes, including the repair of double-stranded DNA breaks and V(D)J recombination. Paradoxically, while Ku is required for double-stranded break repair by non-homologous end-joining, in many organisms, Ku is also associated with telomeres. Although telomeres are naturally occurring double-stranded DNA breaks, one of their first identified functions is to protect chromosomes from end-to-end fusions, a process that is promoted by non-homologous end-joining. While located at telomeres, Ku appears to play several important roles, including: (1) regulating telomere addition, (2) protecting telomeres from recombination and nucleolytic degradation, (3) promoting transcriptional silencing of telomere-proximal genes and (4) nuclear positioning of telomeres. Here, we review the role of Ku at telomeres in the model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and compare and contrast it to the roles of Ku at telomeres in other organisms.
AB - The DNA-binding protein Ku plays a critical role in a variety of cellular processes, including the repair of double-stranded DNA breaks and V(D)J recombination. Paradoxically, while Ku is required for double-stranded break repair by non-homologous end-joining, in many organisms, Ku is also associated with telomeres. Although telomeres are naturally occurring double-stranded DNA breaks, one of their first identified functions is to protect chromosomes from end-to-end fusions, a process that is promoted by non-homologous end-joining. While located at telomeres, Ku appears to play several important roles, including: (1) regulating telomere addition, (2) protecting telomeres from recombination and nucleolytic degradation, (3) promoting transcriptional silencing of telomere-proximal genes and (4) nuclear positioning of telomeres. Here, we review the role of Ku at telomeres in the model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and compare and contrast it to the roles of Ku at telomeres in other organisms.
KW - Degradation
KW - Ku
KW - Recombination
KW - Silencing
KW - Telomere
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=27544471936&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.dnarep.2005.04.021
DO - 10.1016/j.dnarep.2005.04.021
M3 - Review article
C2 - 15979949
AN - SCOPUS:27544471936
SN - 1568-7864
VL - 4
SP - 1215
EP - 1226
JO - DNA Repair
JF - DNA Repair
IS - 11
ER -