Ku80 is involved in telomere maintenance but dispensable for genomic stability in Leishmania mexicana

Ku80 is abundant and retained by virtually all trypanosomatids (except for Blastocrithidia spp.). Apart from ku80 essential role in repair of double-stranded DNA breaks, Ku80 is also involved in other cellular processes, including telomere maintainance, for which this protein appears to have central role in L. mexicana. Ku80 deficiency has manifested in rather ambiguous telomeric phenotypes in different species, showing to influence the length of telomeres and trigger alternative telomere lengthening pathways. Which in L. mexicana, resulted on telomers elongation, opposite to the observed for T. brucei. The elongation appears to be partially independent of TERT - which role in L. mexicana appears to be less pronounced, but linked to an alternative telomerase-independent way of telomere maintaining.