the contribution of TERF2 oligomerization on ATM repression directly. Removal of TERF2 induces ATM-dependent apoptosis by localizing the active, phosphorylated form of ATM to unprotected chromosome ends. Since TERF2 specifically binds at telomeres and remains there when DNA damage is induced, it is unlikely to interfere with activation of the ATM kinase at different sites of DNA damage. Therefore, TERF2 could act as a telomere-specific inhibitor of ATM kinase. TERF2 Knockout Effects Conditional deletion of TERF2 in mice cells effectively removes the shelterin nucleoprotein complex. As a result of removing this complex, several unwanted DNA damage response pathways are activated, including ATM kinase signaling, ATR kinase signaling, non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), alt-NHEJ, C-NHEJ, 5' resection, and homology directed repair (HDR). These repair pathways (in the presence of P53 knockout and Cre) often contribute to the phenotype where chromosome ends are connected to each other in a very long chain, which can be visualized by a combination of a DAPI stain and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique. Interactions TERF2 is also known to recruit certain client proteins, also known as accessory factors. These client proteins are often recruited to TERF2 for a specific function at a specific time, often temporarily. The TRFH domain contains a F120 residue, which is the binding site of TERF2 where it recruits client proteins. These client proteins also contain a TRFH binding motif, which consists of a conserved 6-amino acid sequence of the following formula: YxLxP, where "x" can be any amino acid substituted. The above-mentioned Apollo nuclease (one of many TERF2's client proteins) also contains the formulaic motif; its specific motif sequence is YLLTP. TERF1 also demonstrates similar client protein recruitment mechanism as TERF2, except that it diverges at two concepts: 1) the TRFH of TERF1 contains a F142 residue, 2) the client proteins specific for TERF1 contain the TRFH binding motif sequence of FxLxP, where the amino acid Y (tyrosine) is replaced with F (phenylalanine). TERF2 has also been shown to interact with: Ku70, MRE11A, Nibrin and Rad50, RE1-silencing transcription factor, TERF2IP, Werner syndrome ATP-dependent helicase. Disease relevance of TERF2 Cancer Telomerase is an enzyme that works to create telomeric ends for DNA, and it is thought to play important roles in the development of cancer. Specifically, telomeric stability is known to be a common occurrence in cancer cells. Along with the telomerase, the shelterin complex, and TERF2 and TERF1 specifically, also have been