Figure 3

The homologous recombination machinery counteracts senescence both in the presence and absence of subtelomeric elements at the VST. (a) The absence of Rad51 accelerates replicative senescence in the presence or absence of subtelomeric elements at the shortest telomere. Quantitative analysis of serial spot assays of senescence for cells carrying 7L-VST or 6R-VST as in Fig. 2c. Adjusted p-values were obtained by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test with a false discovery rate correction *p-value < 0.05, **p-value < 0.01 and ***p-value < 0,001. n = 7, 6, 5, 5 for each strain set respectively. See Supplementary Table 3 for detailed p-values. (b) Rad51 and Rad52 preferentially associate with short telomeres in the presence and absence of subtelomere. For each indicated strain, 7L-CTL, 7L-VST, 6R-CTL or 6R-VST, a mixed population of hundreds of independent telomerase-negative clones was grown for ~30 population doublings after sporulation. Chromatin was immunoprecipitated using primary antibodies against either Rad52 (left panel) or Rad51 (right panel). The association of each protein to 7L, 6R or Y’ telomeres or to the ARO1 locus was quantified by qPCR and the fold increase of telomere enrichment over ARO1 is represented. Two biologically independent experiments are shown.