The study identifies trypanosomatid DRBD9 proteins as likely orthologues of eukaryotic initiation factor 4B (eIF4B), using bioinformatics, homology modeling, and structure prediction to reveal conserved RNA-binding motifs and structural features. The findings provide significant insights into the evolution and functional roles of translation initiation factors in trypanosomatids. Table 1 highlights sequence conservation levels between trypanosomatid DRBD9s and human eIF4B, reporting low identity (7–9%) but moderate conservation in specific motifs. However, these conservation percentages seem inconsistent with the high functional similarity inferred later in the text and figures. Could the authors clarify how this low sequence identity aligns with the structural and functional conclusions?
