Dear Editor,

Telomeres are highly organized DNA-protein structures at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes 1. In budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, each chromosome end has TG1–3/C1–3A double-stranded telomeric DNA and a G-rich single-stranded tail 2. The replication of telomere involves both telomerase and recombination pathways 3, 4. When telomerase is absent, telomeric DNA will progressively shorten, and the colony will eventually undergo senescence 4. Some survivors will escape senescence by maintaining telomeres through a Rad52-dependent homologous recombination mechanism 3. Our previous work had identified a conserved non-OB-fold single-stranded telomeric (ssTG) DNA binding protein Sua5p, which facilitates telomerase activity 5. Here we report that Sua5p is also involved in the telomeric DNA recombination in telomerase-negative cells, and type II survivors were completely diminished in the SUA5 deletion telomerase-negative cells. These two distinct functions of Sua5p are independent of each other, but both require its DNA-binding ability.

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