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The Drosophila HOAP protein is required for telomere capping

Nature Cell Biology volume 5, pages 82–84 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

HOAP (HP1/ORC-associated protein) has recently been isolated1 from Drosophila melanogaster embryos as part of a cytoplasmic complex that contains heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) and the origin recognition complex subunit 2 (ORC2). Here, we show that caravaggio, a mutation in the HOAP-encoding gene, causes extensive telomere–telomere fusions in larval brain cells, indicating that HOAP is required for telomere capping. Our analyses indicate that HOAP is specifically enriched at mitotic chromosome telomeres, and strongly suggest that HP1 and HOAP form a telomere-capping complex that does not contain ORC2.

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Figure 1: Mutations in the cav gene cause telomeric fusions.
Figure 2: HOAP localization in wild type, Su(var)2-5 and orc2 mutant cells.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to E. Koundakjian and C. Zuker for the EMS-induced lethal mutations screened to isolate cav, and M. Goldberg, B. Williams and E. Williams for participation in the screen. We are also grateful to J. Mason for the y RT terminal deficiencies, G. Reuter for the Su(var)2-5 mutation, S. Elgin for the C1A9 antibody, , M. Goldberg for the anti-ZW10 antibody and L. Ciapponi for critical reading of the manuscript. This work has been supported in part by a grant from the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) to M.G.

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  1. Giovanni Cenci

    Present address: Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, Università di Lecce, 73100, Lecce, Italy

  2. Giovanni Cenci and Giorgia Siriaco: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università di Roma 'La Sapienza', Rome, 00185, Italy

    Giovanni Cenci, Giorgia Siriaco, Grazia D. Raffa & Maurizio Gatti

  2. University of Kentucky, Lexington, 40506-0225, KY, USA

    Rebecca Kellum

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  1. Giovanni Cenci
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Correspondence to Maurizio Gatti.

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Cenci, G., Siriaco, G., Raffa, G. et al. The Drosophila HOAP protein is required for telomere capping. Nat Cell Biol 5, 82–84 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb902

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