Translation termination in eukaryotes: from simplicity to complexity

The last forty years of molecular biology and biochemistry were enormously rich in discoveries, which were not foreseen even by the most eminent scientists of that time. The findings of 1993-2000 profoundly enlarged our views on translation termination, clearly showing that our previous understanding was enormously oversimplified. Now the structural basis is created for much better insight into functions of termination factors. The story of translation termination in eukaryotes could be taken as an illustration of a general trend of molecular biology: "From simplicity to complexity". However, genuine knowledge requires that after this stage a third phase has to be reached, which is "From complexity to clarity". This has not yet been achieved in translation termination and therefore makes this topic quite attractive for researchers.