PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shaohua Shi
AU  - Yuanze Zhou
AU  - Yanjia Lu
AU  - Hong Sun
AU  - Jing Xue
AU  - Zhenfang Wu
AU  - Ming Lei
TI  - Ccq1–Raf2 interaction mediates CLRC recruitment to establish heterochromatin at telomeres
AID  - 10.26508/lsa.202101106
DP  - 2021 Nov 01
TA  - Life Science Alliance
PG  - e202101106
VI  - 4
IP  - 11
4099  - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/11/e202101106.short
4100  - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/11/e202101106.full
SO  - Life Sci. Alliance2021 Nov 01; 4
AB  - Telomeres, highly ordered DNA-protein complexes at eukaryotic linear chromosome ends, are specialized heterochromatin loci conserved among eukaryotes. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the shelterin complex is important for subtelomeric heterochromatin establishment. Despite shelterin has been demonstrated to mediate the recruitment of the Snf2/histone deacetylase–containing repressor complex (SHREC) and the Clr4 methyltransferase complex (CLRC) to telomeres, the mechanism involved in telomeric heterochromatin assembly remains elusive due to the multiple functions of the shelterin complex. Here, we found that CLRC plays a dominant role in heterochromatin establishment at telomeres. In addition, we identified a series of amino acids in the shelterin subunit Ccq1 that are important for the specific interaction between Ccq1 and the CLRC subunit Raf2. Finally, we demonstrated that the Ccq1–Raf2 interaction is essential for the recruitment of CLRC to telomeres, that contributes to histone H3 lysine 9 methylation, nucleosome stability and the shelterin-chromatin association, promoting a positive feedback mechanism for the nucleation and spreading of heterochromatin at subtelomeres. Together, our findings provide a mechanistic understanding of subtelomeric heterochromatin assembly by shelterin-dependent CLRC recruitment to chromosomal ends.