ArticleMolecular biology of the cell2020
Nuclear body phase separation drives telomere clustering in ALT cancer cells.
Article in Molecular biology of the cell, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers.
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Who cites it
93 citing papers in PubMed, 118 citations in OpenAlex.
- Kinetic Control of Condensate Function: How the Formation Dynamics of APBs Influence ALT Cancer Telomere Length Heterogeneity.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Redox regulation of telomerase and telomeres in cancer: a critical appraisal of exposure, causality and molecular directness.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Centromeres and telomeres as rheological probes of the human cell nucleus.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- Liquid-liquid phase separation in cancer: oncogenic roles, therapeutic potential, and epigenetic regulation.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Epitranscriptomic control of telomere maintenance.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Article
- Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Major Hallmarks of Cancer.Cell proliferation · 2026Review
- Structural organization and function of telomeric chromatin.Nature cell biology · 2026Review
- Liquid‑liquid phase separation of PHLDB2 promotes oral squamous cell carcinoma metastasis through regulating epithelial mesenchymal transition and PIK3CA expression.Molecular medicine reports · 2026Article
- Chromosome movements in meiotic prophase: regulatory mechanisms and biological roles.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Coiled-coil interactions drive the ectopic condensation of overexpressed MAD1 to promote mitotic slippage in cancer cells.iScience · 2025Article
- Telomeric SUMO level influences the choices of APB formation pathways and ALT efficiency.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
- Silencing of SOD1 sensitises ATRX-deficient cells to camptothecin treatment through increased activity of the alternative lengthening of telomeres pathway.Human molecular genetics · 2025Article
- Biomolecular phase separation in tumorigenesis: from aberrant condensates to therapeutic vulnerabilities.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Distinct mechanisms underlying extrachromosomal telomere DNA generation in ALT cancers.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Review
- Off-pore Nup98 condensates mobilize heterochromatic breaks and exclude Rad51.Molecular cell · 2025Article
- Biomolecular Condensates in Telomere Maintenance of ALT Cancer Cells.Journal of molecular biology · 2025Review
- Locking the gates of immortality: targeting alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathways.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- CHAMP1 complex directs heterochromatin assembly and promotes homology-directed DNA repair.Nature communications · 2025Article
33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Telomerase-free cancer cells employ a recombination-based alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway that depends on ALT-associated promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (APBs), whose function is unclear. We find that APBs behave as liquid condensates in response to telomere DNA damage, suggesting two potential functions: condensation to enrich DNA repair factors and coalescence to cluster telomeres. To test these models, we developed a chemically induced dimerization approach to induce de novo APB condensation in live cells without DNA damage. We show that telomere-binding protein sumoylation nucleates APB condensation via interactions between small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) and SUMO interaction motif (SIM), and that APB coalescence drives telomere clustering. The induced APBs lack DNA repair factors, indicating that APB functions in promoting telomere clustering can be uncoupled from enriching DNA repair factors. Indeed, telomere clustering relies only on liquid properties of the condensate, as an alternative condensation chemistry also induces clustering independent of sumoylation. Our findings introduce a chemical dimerization approach to manipulate phase separation and demonstrate how the material properties and chemical composition of APBs independently contribute to ALT, suggesting a general framework for how chromatin condensates promote cellular functions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.