Fingering the ends: how to make new telomeres

Abstract

Telomerase-mediated healing of broken chromosomes gives rise to terminal deletions and is repressed in most organisms. In ciliated protozoa, however, chromosome fragmentation and de novo telomere addition are part of the developmental program. Work by in this issue of Cell indicates that in Euplotes crassus, this is mediated through switching between different telomerase reverse transcriptase isoforms.