Lawrence's book review unfair to Hoffmann

common ancestor lacked a bacterial protein that would be recognizable as a member of the mitochondrial porin protein family, but had a protein translocase that served to import proteins across the outer mitochondrial membrane. We propose that this protein translocase was of bacterial origin, and had an amino-terminal domain with features common to POTRA domains. In the 'endosymbiont model', ATOM evolved from the bacterial translocase present in the original endosymbiont. A variation of this model would allow that the ancestor of ATOM was derived by lateral gene transfer from other bacterial sources (Figure 1, 'LGT model'). In these first two models, the ATOM function is subsequently replaced by Tom40, which then serves as the common core in the TOM complex of all eukaryotes bar the trypanosomes [1]. In the 'single lineage model', Tom40 evolved from an ancestral ATOM. The Tom40-type sequence features detected in ATOM by Zarsky et al. [5] would be fully explained by this evolutionary path. (2011). Mitochondrial preprotein translocase of trypanosomatids has a bacterial origin. Curr. A. (2009). The single mitochondrial porin of Trypanosoma brucei is the main metabolite transporter in the outer mitochondrial membrane. Peter Lawrence [1], in his otherwise scholarly review of a book by Peter Pringle " Experiment Eleven " , is incorrect in asserting that Jules Hoffmann took unfair credit for discoveries made in his laboratory, like exemplars described in the book. As close witnesses to events we know that Hoffmann assembled and animated a group of researchers from various scientific backgrounds to decipher the mechanisms of innate immunity in insects, and has been impeccable in his assignment of credit and support for his co-workers both while they served in his laboratory and in their future independent careers. All signatories are either long-standing collaborators or co-workers of Professor Jules Hoffmann. domain and the structure of the amino-terminal domain being distinguishing features of the mitochondrial porins and the Omp85 family, biophysical and structural analyses of ATOM will be important in moving beyond sequence analysis and to reach a better understanding of the evolution of Tom40 and ATOM. It is possible that both Tom40 and ATOM were derived from a common ancestor (Figure 1, 'single lineage model'). In our paper [4] we proposed this and two other models, and we believe that it would be premature at this stage to reject the other two possibilities from consideration. Each model in Figure 1 is built on …