The Human Telomeric Proteome During Telomere Replication

Telomere shortening can cause detrimental diseases and contribute to aging. It occurs due to the end replication problem in cells lacking telomerase. In addition, recent evidence revealed that telomere shortening can be attributed to difficulties of the semi-conservative DNA replication machinery to replicate through the bulk of telomeric DNA repeats. To investigate telomere replication in a comprehensive manner, we developed QTIP-iPOND, which enables purification of the proteins that associate with telomeres during their replication. We identify in addition to the core replisome a large number of proteins that specifically associate with telomere replication forks and validate their importance.