Telomeres are crucial parts of eukaryotic chromosomes, contributing to DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and genome stability. While in most phylogenetic lineages, telomere-maintenance systems are conserved, ascomycetous yeasts exhibit a high degree of variability in telomeric repeats and the associated proteins. The determinants that enabled this divergent evolutionary process, however, have been unclear. Here, we show that DNA-binding properties of yeast telomere-binding proteins (TBPs) support the scenario where the gradual divergence of telomeric repeats led to their replacement. We analyzed the DNA-protein interactions between Tay1p from Yarrowia lipolytica, Rap1p from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Taz1p from Schizosaccharomyces pombe and a set of telomeric repeats from several yeast species and delineated how the ancestral (Tay1p-like) TBPs were replaced by Rap1p (in budding yeasts) or Taz1p (in fission yeasts). We also postulate two different driving forces for these replacements: (i) Tay1p-to-Rap1p transition appears to be driven by differences in sequence preferences of Tay1p and Rap1p, while (ii) Taz1p became the principal TBP in fission yeast presumably due to its DNA-binding flexibility. Together, our results suggest that in telomeric DNA-protein complexes, the replacement of protein component triggered by the initial variation in DNA sequence space opens the door to further divergence in a runaway-style evolution.

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Journal Article

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Červenák F, Virágová S, Sopkovičová M, Kodada D, Galla E, Sepšiová R, Procházková K, Tomáška Ľ

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