Figure 4.
Measurement of the number and activity of single telomerase by over-dilution. (A) Distribution of activity of single telomerase complexes. Two sets of cell lysate samples equivalent to one and two HeLa cells, respectively, were each diluted in a 384-well PCR plate, and telomerase activity in each well was measured. Three independent assays were conducted, giving a total of positive wells of 96 and 185, respectively, for the one cell and two cells. (B) Gaussian fitting of the Ct values from (A). Numbers in the panels indicate the mean Ct values. (C) Extension of linearity of the telomerase assay to single telomerase complexes. The mean reciprocal of the number of telomerase-positive wells and the corresponding Ct value from (B) were plotted (red and green point) along with a standard curve of Ct vs cell number (black points and line). Numbers beside the bars indicate the mean Ct values.