Experiments with this pond-dwelling organism, Tetrahymena thermophila, led to the identification of protective caps on the ends of chromosomes. The discovery of these caps, called telomeres, and the enzyme that puts them there, known as telomerase, has earned researchers Elizabeth Blackburn, Jack Szostak and Carol Greider the 2009 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Credit: Richard Robinson/PLOS Biology

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