Elevated dosage of Ulp1 disrupts telomeric silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Heterochromatin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is found at the telomeres and silent mating type loci. Many sub-telomeric loci are naturally silenced by this mechanism. In addition, when euchromatic genes are placed proximal to telomeric repeats they are subjected to heritable gene silencing that is referred to as telomere position effect. Establishment and maintenance of TPE is dependent on the assembly of silent information regulator proteins at these loci. Here we show that dosage of SUMO isopeptidase, Ulp1, is important for regulation of TPE. Moderate elevation of Ulp1 reduces silencing of both, the euchromatic gene placed proximal to telomeric repeats and the sub-telomeric genes that are silenced by TPE. We further demonstrate that this loss in silencing is due to reduced recruitment of one of the silent information regulators, Sir3p. We show that SUMO peptidase, Ulp1, regulates telomeric position effect by regulating the recruitment of Sir proteins.