Telomere Orchestrates Encapsulation of Mitotic Chromosomes

Abstract

Telomere is crucial for continued cell proliferation and survival. Using high-temporal microscopy, we show that in mitosis it provides an initiation site for reassembly of barrier/scaffolding proteins during nuclear envelop reassembly. Subsequent spread of these proteins onto decondensing chromosomes completes encapsulation of the entire chromosome set. Depletion of telomere-tip components, TRF1 and TRF2, randomizes nuclear envelope reassembly initiation sites leading to multiple micronuclei production. The data show that telomere tip orchestrates this precisely timed program of nuclear envelop re-assembly. One Sentence SummaryYang and Mikawa investigated the role of telomere in initiating and forming a single nucleus.