ArticleThe EMBO journal2025
Phage-encoded TelN inhibits bacterial Mre11-Rad50 nuclease to protect hairpin telomeres.
Article in The EMBO journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Taming Mre11-Rad50 at Telomeres: Convergent Strategies for Chromosome-End Protection Across Evolution.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Rap1-mediated steric hindrance protects telomeres from MRX sensing.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- Minimal mutational requirements for conversion of a telomere resolvase into a Cre-like site-specific recombinase.PloS one · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Ends of linear chromosomes require protection from host repair machinery that otherwise will mistake them for damaged DNA. The E. coli bacteriophage N15 harbors a linear genome with covalently closed hairpin ends formed by the phage-encoded telomere resolvase TelN. The double-strand break repair complex Mre11-Rad50 (MR, SbcCD in E. coli) specifically targets DNA termini, yet how hairpin telomeres evade host nuclease degradation in bacteria remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that TelN is essential and sufficient to protect N15 phage-derived hairpin telomeres from MR processing in E. coli. Using a combination of genetic and biochemical approaches, we show that this protective function requires both TelN sequence-specific DNA binding and species-specific protein-protein interactions. Notably, we found that protection is independent of TelN's resolution activity and does not require the C-terminal domains of TelN. Our findings reveal a potentially broad mechanism of telomere protection, providing insights into a conserved regulation of MR activity at chromosome ends across the tree of life.
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