Fifty years in the thioredoxin field and a bountiful harvest

Discovered 50 years ago as a hydrogen donor for the reduction of ribonucleotides, thioredoxin is currently recognized as a protein central to the regulation of multiple processes in the cell. Two meetings separated by a period of 30 years serve as benchmarks for assessing this transition-the first held in Berkeley (California) in 1981 and the other convened in 2011 in Sant Feliu de Guixols (Spain). The four of us contributing this article attended both meetings and thus have witnessed the development of the thioredoxin field and its notable extension in unanticipated new directions. In this Perspective we briefly recount the unfolding of this remarkable story. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.