Professor Kim Woo-taek’s research team (Professor Kim and PhD candidate Lee Yong-woo) identified important structural and functional characteristics of telomeres in tobacco plants. Their findings were published on May 14 in the online version of The Plant Cell (IF 8.987), a highly-respected journal in the field of plant biology. Telomeres, the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes, are fundamental to the stabilization of chromosome structures during cell division. Since telomere-specific binding proteins participate in the aging and dividing mechanisms in cells, numerous telomere-associated proteins have been examined in mammalian cells. However, they have just begun to be researched in higher plants. Professor Kim’s research team investigated the functional relationships between single-stranded telomere binding protein GTBP1 and G-strand overhang lengths maintained by telomerase in tobacco. Their results suggest that proper G-overhang length maintenance is required to protect telomeres against aberrant intertelomeric recombination and to prevent developmental damage to the plants. Such maintenance is achieved by the balanced functions of GTBP1 and telomerase activity. Such findings are anticipated to enable further studies on cell-division, aging, and regulating mechanisms in plants. These studies will help to develop varieties plants that are resistant to aging and environmental stress. And they will also allow for more effective regulation of the lifecycle of plants, which should lead to improved crop production.