Spotlight on PhD Students: The regulation of DNA damage response at telomeres: focus on kinases

Mercoledì 01 Dicembre 2021
Review article by Michela Galli and colleagues, published on Biochemical Society Transactions (2021)
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TeCSBi SPOTLIGHT on PhD students

Comment by Greta BianchiBrocca’s Lab )

The door to cellular immortality has been identified in telomerase, the enzyme promoting telomere elongation, which is down-regulated in most human somatic cells. Herein, telomeres gradually and persistently shorten at each DNA replication, eliciting a check-point mediated arrest of cell division. In higher eukaryotes, a couple of kinases - ATR and ATM - are responsible for this checkpoint activation. A different story would be if our cells expressed telomerase, as observed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Indeed, in budding yeast, ATR and ATM orthologs - Mec1 and Tel1 respectively - can support telomerase in telomere protection and elongation, without triggering any checkpoint response. In her interesting review article, Michela GalliClerici’s Lab  ) and collaborators (  Longhese’s Lab ) have faced the open scenario of molecular mechanisms responsible for telomere homeostasis, particularly focusing on Mec1/ATR and Tel1/ATM function in presence and absence of telomerase. Her work has been published in Biochemical Society Transactions in 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20200856). If you would like to go deep into this fascinating topic, Michela’s paper is exactly what you need.

Congratulations for your excellent work Michela, we’ll stay tuned with your research!

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