Purpose: This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of molecular gastronomy by conducting empirical research focusing on renowned chefs. Design/methodology/approach: The approach taken is a literature review summarising past culinary innovations then the paper focuses on the origins and evolution of molecular gastronomy, followed by 18 phenomenological interviews with a snowball sample of world class chefs from across Europe. Findings: There is far greater confusion about what molecular gastronomy might be than is implied in previous studies. The term has become wrongly used to describe a possible culinary movement mainly as a result of media influence. Leading chefs, whose new restaurant concepts have become associated with it, reject the term. Research limitations/implications: With only 20 years of history molecular gastronomy is still a comparatively new phenomenon. This initial research presents a clear picture of its evolution so far and the increasing confusion the use of the term has created. It is still far too early to decide if these are heralding a new gastronomic movement. Practical implications: Although molecular gastronomy itself may not provide a foundation for a genuine and lasting development of cuisine it is generating fascination with the fundamental science and techniques of cuisine and showy culinary alchemy. As with nouvelle cuisine poor quality copycat chefs could bring into disrepute the reputation and practices of those who are at the vanguard of culinary and restaurant innovation. Originality/value: This paper is the first widespread primary study, across five countries, into recognised exceptional chefs' understanding of molecular gastronomy. It clarifies that molecular gastronomy was never intended to be the foundation of a culinary movement and identifies four key elements for the development of lasting cuisine movements and trends.
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Mammalian promoters can be separated into two classes, conserved TATA box-enriched promoters, which initiate at a well-defined site, and more plastic, broad and evolvable CpG-rich promoters. We have sequenced tags corresponding to several hundred thousand transcription start sites (TSSs) in the mouse and human genomes, allowing precise analysis of the sequence architecture and evolution of distinct promoter classes. Different tissues and families of genes differentially use distinct types of promoters. Our tagging methods allow quantitative analysis of promoter usage in different tissues and show that differentially regulated alternative TSSs are a common feature in protein-coding genes and commonly generate alternative N termini. Among the TSSs, we identified new start sites associated with the majority of exons and with 3' UTRs. These data permit genome-scale identification of tissue-specific promoters and analysis of the cis-acting elements associated with them.
Carnitine/choline acyltransferases play diverse roles in energy metabolism and neuronal signalling. Our knowledge of their evolutionary relationships, important for functional understanding, is incomplete. Therefore, we aimed to determine the evolutionary relationships of these eukaryotic transferases. We performed extensivephylogenetic and intron position analyses. We found that mammalian intramitochondrial CPT2 is most closely related to cytosolic yeast carnitine transferases (Sc-YAT1 and 2), whereas the other members of the family are related to intraorganellar yeast Sc-CAT2. Therefore, the cytosolically active CPT1 more closely resembles intramitochondrial ancestors than CPT2. The choline acetyltransferase is closely related to carnitine acetyltransferase and shows lower evolutionary rates than long chain acyltransferases. In the CPT1 family several duplications occurred during animal radiation, leading to the isoforms CPT1A, CPT1B and CPT1C. In addition, we found five CPT1-like genes in Caenorhabditis elegans that strongly group to the CPT1 family. The long branch leading to mammalian brain isoform CPT1C suggests that either strong positive or relaxed evolution has taken place on this node. The presented evolutionary delineation of carnitine/choline acyltransferases adds to current knowledge on their functions and provides tangible leads for further experimental research.
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