Nessun Dorma, a novel centralspindlin partner, is required for cytokinesis in Drosophila spermatocytes.

Cytokinesis, the final step of cell division, usually ends with the abscission of the two daughter cells. In some tissues, however, daughter cells never completely separate and remain interconnected by intercellular bridges or ring canals. In this paper, we report the identification and analysis of a novel ring canal component, Nessun Dorma (Nesd), isolated as an evolutionarily conserved partner of the centralspindlin complex, a key regulator of cytokinesis.

Identification of chromosomal alpha-proteobacterial small RNAs by comparative genome analysis and detection in Sinorhizobium meliloti strain 1021.

Background: Small untranslated RNAs (sRNAs) seem to be far more abundant than previously believed. The number of sRNAs confirmed in E. coli through various approaches is above 70, with several hundred more sRNA candidate genes under biological validation.

RASTA-Bacteria: a web-based tool for identifying toxin-antitoxin loci in prokaryotes.

Toxin/antitoxin (TA) systems, viewed as essential regulators of growth arrest and programmed cell death, are widespread among prokaryotes, but remain sparsely annotated. We present RASTA-Bacteria, an automated method allowing quick and reliable identification of TA loci in sequenced prokaryotic genomes, whether they are annotated open reading frames or not. The tool successfully confirmed all reported TA systems, and spotted new putative loci upon screening of sequenced genomes.