A genetic interaction between RAP1 and telomerase reveals an unanticipated role for RAP1 in telomere protection

RAP1 is one of the components of mammalian shelterin, the capping complex at chromosome ends or telomeres, although its role in telomere protection has remained elusive. RAP1 binds along chromosome arms, where it regulates gene expression and has been shown to function in metabolism control. Telomerase is the enzyme that elongates telomeres and its deficiency causes a premature aging in mice. We describe an unanticipated genetic interaction between RAP1 and telomerase. While RAP1 deficiency alone does not impact in mouse survival, mice lacking both RAP1 and telomerase show a progressive decreased survival with increasing mouse generation as compared to telomerase single mutants. Telomere shortening was more pronounced in Rap1-/- Terc-/- than in Terc-/- counterparts, leading to an earlier onset of DNA damage and its consequent DNA damage response as well as accelerated degenerative pathologies in the intestines. In its turn, telomerase deficiency abolishes RAP1-mediated obesity and liver pathologies. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts with shorten telomeres present less amount of telomere-bound RAP1 but in contrast show higher numbers of RAP1 bound extratelomeric sites genomewide. Absence of RAP1 leads to deregulation of several metabolic pathways, and these changes were more pronounce in cells with short telomeres suggesting that RAP1 release from telomere foci could constitute a coordinated genomic response to telomere shortening. Our findings also demonstrate that although RAP1 is not a key factor in telomere capping under normal conditios, under stress situation such as critical telomere shortening RAP1 exerts an important function for telomere protection and justify its evolutionary conservation as a shelterin component in mammalian cells.