Germline transmission of a bicistronic vector using the 2A peptide to allow co-translational cleavage is stable in mice and shows no developmental side-effects, giving a superior alternative to the internal ribosomal entry site for expressing multiple transgenes.

Understanding of the pathogenesis of hereditary spastic paraplegia has been advanced by the discovery of a cryptic promoter in the spastin gene, which directs tissue-specific expression of the shorter spastin isoform.

tmRNA rescues stalled ribosomes but lacks an anticodon and so probably uses a separate ligand to establish the reading frame on tmRNA, rather than the three nucleotides upstream of the first codon as previously thought.