Maria Teresa Teixeira

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire des Eucaryotes

In eukaryotes, telomeres cap chromosome ends to maintain genomic stability. Failure to maintain telomeres leads to their progressive erosion and eventually triggers replicative senescence, a pathway that protects against unrestricted cell proliferation. However, the mechanisms underlying the variability and dynamics of this pathway are still elusiv...

The model for telomere shortening at each replication cycle is currently incomplete, and the exact contribution of the telomeric 3' overhang to the shortening rate remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate key steps of the mechanism of telomere replication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By following the dynamics of telomeres during replication at near-nu...

Telomerase counteracts telomere erosion that stems from incomplete chromosome end replication and nucleolytic processing. A precise understanding of telomere length homeostasis has been hampered by the lack of assays that delineate the nonuniform telomere extension events of single chromosome molecules. Here, we measure telomere elongation at nucle...

Replicative senescence is triggered when telomeres reach critically short length and activate permanent DNA damage checkpoint-dependent cell cycle arrest. Mitochondrial dysfunction and increase in oxidative stress are both features of replicative senescence in mammalian cells. However, how reactive oxygen species levels are controlled during senesc...

L’évolution a doté les organismes eucaryotes de chromosomes linéaires, équipant chaque chromosome d’extrémités qui sont protégées par une structure particulière nommée « télomère ». L’effet considérable des télomères sur la stabilité globale du génome et leur implication dans le vieillissement et le cancer ont contribué à leur fascination.Cet ouvra...

Progressive shortening of telomeres ultimately causes replicative senescence and is linked with aging and tumor suppression. Studying the intricate link between telomere shortening and senescence at the molecular level and its population-scale effects over time is challenging with current approaches but crucial for understanding behavior at the org...

Replicative senescence is triggered when telomeres reach critically short length and activate permanent DNA damage checkpoint-dependent cell cycle arrest. Mitochondrial dysfunction and increase in oxidative stress are both features of replicative senescence in mammalian cells. Here, we show that reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels increase in the...

Telomeres are structures made of DNA, proteins and RNA found at the ends of eukaryotic linear chromosomes. These dynamic nucleoprotein structures protect chromosomal tips from end-to-end fusions, degradation, activation of damage checkpoints and erroneous DNA repair events. Telomeres were thought to be transcriptionally silent regions because of th...

Telomere dysfunction activates the DNA damage checkpoint to induce a cell cycle arrest. After an extended period of time, however, cells can bypass the arrest and undergo cell division despite the persistence of the initial damage, a process called adaptation to DNA damage. The Polo kinase Cdc5 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is essential for adaptatio...

Telomere dysfunction activates the DNA damage checkpoint to induce a cell cycle arrest. After an extended period of time, however, cells can bypass the arrest and undergo cell division despite the persistence of the initial damage, a process called adaptation to DNA damage. The Polo kinase Cdc5 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is essential for adaptatio...

Background: Telomerase-negative cells have limited proliferation potential. In these cells, telomeres shorten until they reach a critical length and induce a permanently arrested state. This process called replicative senescence is associated with genomic instability and participates in tissue and organismal ageing. Experimental data using single-...

Background: Telomerase-negative cells have limited proliferation potential. In these cells, telomeres shorten until they reach a critical length and induce a permanently arrested state. This process called replicative senescence is associated with genomic instability and participates in tissue and organismal ageing. Experimental data using single-c...

Telomeres are part of the system that guards genome integrity in eukaryotes, protecting linear chromosomes from fusions and degradations. The protective functions of telomeres are put at risk in physiological situations where telomeres shorten and trigger replicative senescence. Current models suggest that when telomeres shorten, combined actions o...

Replicative senescence, which is induced by telomere shortening, underlies the loss of regeneration capacity of organs and is ultimately detrimental to the organism. At the same time, it is required to protect organisms from unlimited cell proliferation that may arise from numerous stimuli or deregulations. One important feature of replicative sene...

Telomeres are repeated sequences found at the end of the linear chromosomes of most eukaryotes and are required for chromosome integrity. Expression of the reverse-transcriptase telomerase allows for extension of telomeric repeats to counteract natural telomere shortening. Although Chlamydomonas reinhardtii , a photosynthetic unicellular green alga...

In the above-mentioned article, the Supplemental movie files were inadvertently excluded. These files have now been added to the Supplemental Material online.

In eukaryotes, telomeres determine cell proliferation potential by triggering replicative senescence in the absence of telomerase. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, senescence is mainly dictated by the first telomere that reaches a critically short length, activating a DNA-damage-like response. How the corresponding signaling is modulated by the telomer...

Telomeres are repeated sequences found at the end of the linear chromosomes of most eukaryotes and are required for chromosome integrity. They shorten with each cell division because of the end-replication problem. Expression of the reverse transcriptase telomerase allows for extension of telomeric repeats to counteract telomere shortening. Althoug...

In cells lacking telomerase, telomeres gradually shorten during each cell division to reach a critically short length, permanently activate the DNA damage checkpoint, and trigger replicative senescence. The increase in genome instability that occurs as a consequence may contribute to the early steps of tumorigenesis. However, because of the low fre...

Maintenance of a minimal telomere length is essential to prevent cellular senescence. When critically short telomeres arise in the absence of telomerase, they can be repaired by homology-directed repair (HDR) to prevent premature senescence onset. It is unclear why specifically the shortest telomeres are targeted for HDR. We demonstrate that the no...

In eukaryotes, the absence of telomerase results in telomere shortening, eventually leading to replicative senescence, an arrested state that prevents further cell divisions. While replicative senescence is mainly controlled by telomere length, the heterogeneity of its onset is not well understood. This study proposes a mathematical model based on...

In the absence of telomerase, telomeres progressively shorten with every round of DNA replication, leading to replicative senescence. In telomerase-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the shortest telomere triggers the onset of senescence by activating the DNA damage checkpoint and recruiting homologous recombination (HR) factors. Yet, the molecula...

The absence of telomerase in many eukaryotes leads to the gradual shortening of telomeres, causing replicative senescence. In humans, this proliferation barrier constitutes a tumor suppressor mechanism and may be involved in cellular aging. Yet, the heterogeneity of the senescence phenotype has hindered the understanding of its onset. Here we inves...

In many somatic human tissues, telomeres shorten progressively because of the DNA-end replication problem. Consequently, cells cease to proliferate and are maintained in a metabolically viable state called replicative senescence. These cells are characterized by an activation of DNA damage checkpoints stemming from eroded telomeres, which are bypas...

Telomere protection in budding yeast requires the heterotrimer named CST (for Cdc13-Stn1-Ten1). Recent data show that CST components are conserved and required for telomere stability in a wide range of eukaryotes, even those utilizing the shelterin complex to protect their telomeres. A common function of these proteins might be to stimulate priming...

The linear chromosomes of eukaryotes end with telomeres that are essential for chromosome stability. Telomeres are composed of short DNA repeats that protrude to form a single-stranded 3′ tail, a set of proteins that specifically binds to them, and telomeric transcripts. All these elements are required to ensure telomere protection from inappropria...

Telomeres are nucleo-protein structures that protect chromosome ends against degradation, fusion, recombination and recognition by the DNA damage machinery and at the same time facilitate replication of the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes. The maintenance of telomere length depends on telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein complex that uses its RNA...

Telomerase, the key enzyme essential for the maintenance of eukaryotic chromosome ends, contains a reverse transcriptase and an RNA that provides the template for the synthesis of telomeric repeats. Here, we characterize the telomerase subunits in the hemiascomycete yeast Candida glabrata. We propose a secondary structure model for the telomerase R...

Telomeres protect chromosome ends from fusion and degradation. In the absence of a specific telomere elongation mechanism, their DNA shortens progressively with every round of replication, leading to replicative senescence. Here, we show that telomerase-deficient cells bearing a single, very short telomere senesce earlier, demonstrating that the le...

The ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes are protected by telomeres, which serve to ensure proper chromosome replication and to prevent spurious recombination at chromosome ends. In this study, we show by single cell analysis that in the absence of telomerase, a single short telomere is sufficient to induce the recruitment of checkpoint and recomb...

The functional assembly of a ciliate telomerase requires ordered RNA conformational changes mediated by a La motif-containing protein. This raises new questions about telomerase biogenesis and the evolutionary origin of the telomerase RNA.

Linear chromosomes start and end with a specialized nucleoprotein structure, termed telomere, which is essential to maintain genome stability. In most eukaryotes, telomeric DNA is composed of G-rich repeated sequences running from 5′ to the 3′ end. Nondividing cells are capable of maintaining this stock of repeated DNA over time, while telomeric DN...

Telomeres are multifunctional genetic elements that cap chromosome ends, playing essential roles in genome stability, chromosome higher-order organization and proliferation control. The telomere field has largely benefited from the study of unicellular eukaryotic organisms such as yeasts. Easy cultivation in laboratory conditions and powerful genet...

Telomerase extends chromosome ends by iterative reverse transcription of its RNA template. Following the addition of each telomeric repeat, the RNA template and the telomeric substrate reset their relative position in the active site provided by the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). This step might require the formation of guanine-rich secon...

Organisation of the cell nucleus is crucial for the regulation of gene expression but little is known about how nuclei are structured. To address this issue, we designed a genomic screen to identify factors involved in nuclear architecture in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This screen is based on microscopic monitoring of nuclear pore complexes and nucl...

Telomerase uses an internal RNA moiety as template for the synthesis of telomere repeats. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the telomerase holoenzyme contains the telomerase reverse transcriptase subunit Est2p, the telomerase RNA moiety TLC1, the telomerase associated proteins Est1p and Est3p, and Sm proteins. Here we assess telomerase assembly by deter...

Nup145p is a component of the nuclear pore complex of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and is essential for mRNA export. Nup145p and its apparent vertebrate homologue are the only known nucleoporins to be composed of two functionally independent peptide moieties resulting from the post-translational cleavage of a large precursor molecule. In this study, th...

Nup145p is an essential yeast nucleoporin involved in nuclear export of polyadenylated RNAs. We demonstrate here that Nup145p is cleaved in vivo to yield two functionally distinct domains: a carboxy-terminal domain (C-Nup145p) which is located at the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and assembles into the Nup84p complex, and a GLFG-containing amino-termi...