An improved general approach for cloning and characterizing telomeres: the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi as model organism.

We here describe a general strategy for cloning and characterizing telomeric and sub-telomeric regions of the human protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The use of a bacterial artificial chromosome vector and a telomeric adaptor produced stable telomeric recombinant clones with inserts ranging from 5 to 25 kb. Analysis of these recombinants provided unique landmarks for chromosomal mapping and sequencing and enabled us to derive a more accurate picture of T. cruzi telomeric organization.