Human CST promotes telomere duplex replication and general replication restart after fork stalling

Jason A. Stewart, Feng Wang, Mary F. Chaiken, Christopher Kasbek, Paul D. Chastain, Woodring E. Wright, Carolyn M. Price

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

153 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mammalian CST (CTC1-STN1-TEN1) associates with telomeres and depletion of CTC1 or STN1 causes telomere defects. However, the function of mammalian CST remains poorly understood. We show here that depletion of CST subunits leads to both telomeric and non-telomeric phenotypes associated with DNA replication defects. Stable knockdown of CTC1 or STN1 increases the incidence of anaphase bridges and multi-telomeric signals, indicating genomic and telomeric instability. STN1 knockdown also delays replication through the telomere indicating a role in replication fork passage through this natural barrier. Furthermore, we find that STN1 plays a novel role in genome-wide replication restart after hydroxyurea (HU)-induced replication fork stalling. STN1 depletion leads to reduced EdU incorporation after HU release. However, most forks rapidly resume replication, indicating replisome integrity is largely intact and STN1 depletion has little effect on fork restart. Instead, STN1 depletion leads to a decrease in new origin firing. Our findings suggest that CST rescues stalled replication forks during conditions of replication stress, such as those found at natural replication barriers, likely by facilitating dormant origin firing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3537-3549
Number of pages13
JournalEMBO Journal
Volume31
Issue number17
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 29 2012

Keywords

  • CTC1
  • DNA replication
  • STN1
  • replication origin
  • telomeres

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • Molecular Biology
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Immunology and Microbiology

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