A Single Templating RNA in Yeast Telomerase

The number of essential telomerase components in the active ribonucleoprotein (RNP) has important implications for its mechanism of action yet is by and large unknown. We report that two differentially tagged TLC1 RNAs endogenously expressed in a heterozygous diploid and simultaneously detected via multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments do not co-localize. Probabilistic calculations combined with direct quantification of FISH signals demonstrate that the TLC1 RNA indeed occurs as a single molecule in these RNPs. In addition, two differentially tagged reverse-transcriptase subunits could not be co-immunoprecipitated. These results therefore show that, in yeast cells, telomerase is assembled and matured and occurs as a monomer when not on telomeres. Finally, combining these findings with previous evidence leads us to propose that the enzyme also acts as a monomer when elongating telomeres.