Finding Human Telomere-Binding Proteins

The first telomere end-binding proteins were isolated in the ciliated protozoan Oxytricha by biochemical purification. This was possible because Oxytricha has millions of tiny chromosomes. Given the importance of telomere end-binding proteins, it was essential to identify human versions.

With only 23 pairs of chromosomes, human cells do not have enough telomere end-binding proteins to allow easy purification. Instead, the human proteins were discovered by bioinformatic techniques.