Julia Promisel Cooper
The universality of eukaryotic chromosome linearity suggests some evolutionary advantage, despite the clear challenges imposed by linear chromosome ends, whose vulnerability to degradation and end-joining pathways drives genome instability. We have uncovered key principles underlying the ability of telomeres to protect chromosomes from these threats, and identified unforeseen additional telomeric roles, including the control of meiotic nuclear envelope breakdown and centromere assembly. These discoveries provide novel rationales for the evolutionary persistence of chromosome linearity. Furthermore, we find instances in which telomeres and other genomic regions can function interchangeably, an initially counter-intuitive finding with implications for genome plasticity and evolution.
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