Telomeres are necessary to preserve the integrity of the genetic material through the cell cycle.
Furthermore, they are suspected to play an active role in ageing and cancer. Indeed, their length declines with age and during senescence occurring in cultured cells and most of human malignant cells exhibit modifications in their telomere organization. We are developing two general approaches, centred on the roles of nuclear proteins in the structure and function of telomeric regions. The exploration of long-range interactions in the creation or maintenance of functional chromatin domains mediated by the yeast Rap1 telomeric protein. This protein plays at least two roles at telomeres by organizing transcriptional repression and by regulating telomere length.