Webb, C.J., Zakian, V.A. (2008). Identification and characterization of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe TER1 telomerase RNA. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 15(1), 34-42. DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1354
Leonardi, J., Box, J.A., Bunch, J.T., Baumann, P. (2008). TER1, the RNA subunit of fission yeast telomerase. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 15(1), 26-33. DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1343
Two papers in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology identify the telomerase RNA in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Telomerase is a multi-unit enzyme that has both protein and RNA components. While the protein subunit is highly conserved and identifiable through sequence comparisons of eukaryotes, the RNA subunit has a variable size and sequence making identification through comparative means more difficult. The S. pombe telomerase RNA subunit, or TER1, was discovered by two labs applying similar biochemical approaches to identify the locus.