Downloaded from genome.cshlp.org on October 6, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Sister chromatid, but not NHEJ-mediated inter-chromosomal telomere fusions, occur independently of DNA ligases 3 and 4 Kate Liddiard,1 Brian Ruis,2 Taylor Takasugi,2 Adam Harvey,2 Kevin E. Ashelford, 1 Eric A. Hendrickson2¶ and Duncan M. Baird1¶ ¶ Joint senior authors 1Institute of Cancer and Genetics, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XN, United Kingdom. 2 Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Corresponding author: Duncan Baird, Institute of Cancer and Genetics, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XN, UK. Email:
[email protected] Running title: A- and C-NHEJ of dysfunctional human telomeres Keywords: Telomere, genome instability, DNA repair, inter-chromosomal, intra- chromosomal, non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), DNA ligase, microhomology, crisis, double-stranded DNA break (DSB) 1 Downloaded from genome.cshlp.org on October 6, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Abstract Telomeres shorten with each cell division and can ultimately become substrates for non-homologous end-joining repair, leading to large-scale genomic rearrangements of the kind frequently observed in human cancers. We have characterised over 1400 telomere fusion events at the single-molecule level, using a combination of high- throughput sequence analysis together with experimentally-induced telomeric double-stranded DNA breaks. We show that a single chromosomal dysfunctional telomere can fuse with diverse non-telomeric genomic loci, even in the presence of an otherwise stable genome, and that fusion predominates in coding regions.