A variety of factors contribute to the important biological event of initiation of translation. The eIF4F complex of translation initiation factors binds to the 5' m7 GTP cap to open up the mRNA secondary structure and allow small ribosome subunit binding (1). eIF4A, an eIF4 complex component that acts as an ATP-dependent RNA helicase, unwinds the secondary structure of the 5' mRNA untranslated region to mediate ribosome binding (2,3). In addition, eIF4A has recently been shown to repress Dpp/BMP signalling in a translation-independent manner in Drosophila (4,5).