Editor's Summary

1 February 2007

End of the line

Telomeres, the tips of linear chromosomes, are protected by various binding proteins including, in ciliates, the telomere-binding complex TBP/. Humans have a TBP homologue, POT1, but TBP has not been found outside of ciliates. Now two groups have separately identified the elusive TBP homologue in humans as TPP1. Surprisingly, when the POT1–TPP1 complex binds to telomeric DNA, it does not inhibit telomerase activity, as other telomere binding proteins do. Instead, it stimulates telomerase activity and processivity, the rate of nucleotide addition by the core telomerase enzyme.

Article: The POT1–TPP1 telomere complex is a telomerase processivity factor

Feng Wang, Elaine R. Podell, Arthur J. Zaug, Yuting Yang, Paul Baciu, Thomas R. Cech and Ming Lei

doi:10.1038/nature05454

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,024K) | Supplementary information

Letter: TPP1 is a homologue of ciliate TEBP- and interacts with POT1 to recruit telomerase

Huawei Xin, Dan Liu, Ma Wan, Amin Safari, Hyeung Kim, Wen Sun, Matthew S. O'Connor and Zhou Songyang

doi:10.1038/nature05469

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (841K) | Supplementary information