Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in trypanosomes and leishmanias

Abstract

Gene expression in Kinetoplastids is very unusual in that the open reading frames are arranged in long polycistronic arrays, monocistronic mRNAs being created by post-transcriptional processing. Thus the regulation of gene expression is post-transcriptional. We here discuss recent results concerning the enzymes required for mRNA degradation, and components of the translation initiation machinery, and how both are regulated.