Gene expression in eukaryotes was long held to be monocistronic – that is, a single gene makes messenger RNA, which encodes a single protein. Recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers has found numerous examples of polycistronic expression – in which two or more genes are encoded on a single molecule of mRNA – in two species of green algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Chromochloris zofingiensis.
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