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Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 813 (1 December 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrm2801

DNA damage response: Keeping telomerase at bay

Emily J. Chenette

The enzyme telomerase maintains chromosome integrity by synthesizing telomeres at chromosome ends. What prevents telomerase from adding telomeres to double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs)? In Nature Cell Biology, Svetlana Makovets and Elizabeth Blackburn now report that DNA damage signalling induces phosphorylation of the telomerase inhibitor Pif1 (petite integration frequency 1).