New Quinocofactors in Eukaryotes

New insights into polycistronic transcripts in eukaryotes.

In bacteria and archaea, many functionally related genes are organized into operons in order to be transcribed and translated simultaneously. Operons are rarely seen in eukaryotes except for the Trypanosome and nematode, in which they are first transcribed into polycistronic transcripts but then processed into individual mature mRNAs. Recently, several researchers described the findings of poly...

The new phylogeny of eukaryotes.

Molecular phylogeny has been regarded as the ultimate tool for the reconstruction of relationships among eukaryotes-especially the different protist groups-given the difficulty in interpreting morphological data from an evolutionary point of view. In fact, the use of ribosomal RNA as a marker has provided the first well resolved eukaryotic phylogenies, leading to several important evolutionary ...

New ways of initiating translation in eukaryotes?

New Ways of Initiating Translation in Eukaryotes?

This letter to the editor is a response by a large number of investigators in the field of protein synthesis to the minireview published by Dr. Kozak in Molecular and Cellular Biology (9). This minireview attempts to create significant doubts regarding the published literature that we believe are unwarranted and to bolster Dr. Kozak’s own point of view regarding translation initiation. We there...

Unveiling new microbial eukaryotes in the surface ocean.

A decade after molecular techniques were used to discover novel bacteria and archaea in the oceans, the same approach has revealed a wealth of new marine eukaryotic microbes. The approach has been particularly successful with the smallest eukaryotes, where morphological and culture approaches frequently fail. Analysis of samples from the surface ocean, the most accessible and supposedly well-kn...