Table 1. Strains with telomere dysfunction have increased rates of white colony formation.

TER1 allele	Telomere length	Total colonies observed	White colonies observed	Percentage of white colonies (%)	Median
Wild-type	400–600 bp	57,983	0	<0.002	0.00% (18)
ter1-Δ	Variable length >100 bp at senescence	32,484	1560	4.80	11.49% (27)
stn1-M1	Very long and heterogenous	55,272	173	0.31	1.30% (22)
stn1-M1 ter1Δ	Very long and heterogenous	78,187	797	1.02	2.44% (18)
taq-28C	75–150 bp	134,375	90	0.07	0.02% (30)

Dilution plates were examined for white colony formation in seven strains with varying levels of telomere function. The number of independent isolates used to generate the median frequency of white colonies is indicated in parentheses in the median column. Median frequency of white colonies formed was calculated from the average number of white colonies formed across the different independent isolates (see Materials and Methods for detailed description).