Cyclosporin study may lead to novel ways of approaching mitochondrial dysfunction

(Kazan Federal University) Fungi producing cyclosporins exist as two reproducing stages: asexual -- soil fungi from which cyclosporin was initially extracted, and sexual -- parasitic fungi close to a popularly known genus Cordyceps. Unlike most polypeptides synthesized on ribosomes following the information directly encoded in nucleic acid, cyclosporins are produced on a special enzyme, cyclosporin synthetase.