Science High on French Political Agenda

NEWS NATURE|Vol 447|31 May 2007 Science high on French political agenda Science has made an unexpectedly strong radical revision of policies, including showing in the government of François energy, transport and agriculture, and to Fillon, prime minister of France’s newly address climate change, species extinc- elected president, Nicolas Sarkozy. The tion, pollution and other environmental environment and energy, in both the issues. In the face of Hulot’s massive pop- French media and government, have ular support (polls showed that had he ANDRIEU/AFP/GETTY P. become à la mode. run, he could have won as much as 10% of Ecology and sustainable development, the vote), candidates, including Sarkozy, long relegated to puny ministries, have queued up to sign. been propelled to a top-rank superministry. It is too soon to say how the creation And at its helm is a political heavyweight of France’s superministry will translate — Alain Juppé, a former prime minister into actions. But the scale of the govern- and foreign minister. The ministry will ment’s environmental commitments on have responsibility for the huge sectors paper is “historic”, says Yvon Le Maho, of transport, urban and rural planning, a biodiversity researcher at the Hubert energy policy, and other ecological areas Grand gestures: Alain Juppé has taken the reins at France’s Curien Multidisciplinary Institute in such as biodiversity, water and pollution. new superministry for ecology and sustainable development. Strasbourg. Le Maho, along with several Science and higher education have been green non-governmental organizations, granted a full-blown ministry, too, headed by moderate conservative, is himself no stranger attended a planning meeting with Sarkozy and Valérie Pécresse. The move was by no means to these areas: he served as research and higher- Juppé on 21 May to help hammer out a compre- guaranteed, given that Sarkozy has halved the education minister in 1993–95 and 2004–05. hensive five-year plan for the environment. “To number of ministers in his government to Much of the credit for getting the environ- be at such a meeting just days after Sarkozy took 15, and that the previous government allot- ment so high on the political agenda must go office was completely surreal,” he says. ted these sectors only junior status. Bernard to Nicolas Hulot, a highly popular TV environ- The government’s surprising ecological bent Kouchner, co-founder of the medical humani- mentalist, journalist and writer. During the could also make for an interesting G8 meeting, tarian aid group Médecins Sans Frontières and presidential election campaign, the Nicolas which is scheduled for 6–8 June in the more a member of the opposition socialist party, has Hulot Foundation asked candidates to sign traditionally green Germany. ■ been appointed foreign minister. And Fillon, a up to a ten-point ecological pact pledging a Declan Butler Complex set of RNAs found in simple green algae A class of RNA molecule, called was similar to our own,” he says. evolutionary processes,” says Jim a microRNA, has been found in a Now it seems that the RNA in simple Umen from the Salk Institute in La unicellular green alga. The discovery, unicellular organisms could be as Jolla, California. made independently by two labs, complex as that in higher creatures. A combination of factors led to dismantles the popular theory that The second study, which the recent findings: high-throughput M.I. WALKER/SPL the regulatory role of microRNAs independently came to the same sequencing can now sieve through in gene expression is tied to the conclusion, appears online in thousands of RNA molecules in evolution of multicellularity. Nature this week (A. Molnár et al. search of microRNA. And having a The researchers confirmed the doi:10.1038/nature05903; 2007). nearly completed map of the genome existence of dozens of microRNAs Ever since the discovery of for the alga means that its sequences in the genome of the green alga RNA interference — the selective can be interpreted relatively easily. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and think blocking of gene expression by small MicroRNAs found in green algae Nobody knows why such a simple that hundreds are likely. The finding RNAs — biologists have identified hint at the organism’s complexity. organism needs microRNAs, nor is as startling as the discovery a growing family of these tiny how or when they first appeared. ten years ago that the nematode molecules in eukaryotic organisms. evolved independently in plant and But researchers say they may help Caenorhabditis elegans has 19,000 But hunts in yeast and in the protist animal lineages as parts of complex C. reinhardtii adapt to extremely genes, just 1,000 short of the human Tetrahymena have yielded fewer regulatory mechanisms associated diverse environments. count, says Gregory Hannon from types of RNA molecule than found with multicellularity. Now it seems Whatever their role, their Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in in plants and animals. MicroRNAs that these molecules may predate presence indicates that microRNAs New York and a co-author of one of were never found. that evolutionary development. could be much more ancient than the studies (T. Zhao et al. Genes Dev. This, combined with the fact that “It shows how basing conclusions previously thought; they might 21, 1190–1203; 2007). “People were RNA sequences differ between on studies of just one or two model have persisted for more than a shocked that the complexity of the plants and animals, helped give organisms can really lead you astray billion years. ■ genomes in these simpler creatures rise to the idea that microRNAs in terms of how you think about Lucy Odling-Smee 518.

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