Comparative genetic linkage studies in rats, mice and humans have finally identified a key component of vitamin K metabolism that is targeted by the commonest anticoagulant drugs in use today. Vitamins have enormous medical and economic importance. For example, the discovery of vitamin K, essential for blood clotting, led to the prevention of countless deaths from bleeding and blood clots, and facilitated the control of devastating agricultural pests. These benefits accrued despite a limited understanding of vitamin K metabolism. Vitamin K must be enzymati-cally activated before it can do its job, but the proteins involved in this process have resisted identification for more than 60 years. At last real progress has been made, as Rost et al. and Li et al. describe in this issue.
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