text: P-bodies were first described in the scientific literature by Bashkirov et al. in 1997, in which they describe "small granules… discrete, prominent foci" as the cytoplasmic location of the mouse exoribonuclease mXrn1p. It wasn’t until 2002 that a glimpse into the nature and importance of these cytoplasmic foci was published., when researchers demonstrated that multiple proteins involved with mRNA degradation localize to the foci. Their importance was recognized after experimental evidence was obtained pointing to P-bodies as the sites of mRNA degradation in the cell. The researchers named these structures processing bodies or "P bodies". During this time, many descriptive names were used also to identify the processing bodies, including "GW-bodies" and "decapping-bodies"; however "P-bodies" was the term chosen and is now widely used and accepted in the scientific literature. Recently evidence has been presented suggesting that GW-bodies and P-bodies may in fact be different cellular components. The evidence being that GW182 and Ago2, both associated with miRNA gene silencing, are found exclusively in multivesicular bodies or GW-bodies and are not localized to P-bodies. Also of note, P-bodies are not equivalent to stress granules and they contain largely non-overlapping proteins. The two structures support overlapping cellular functions but generally occur under different stimuli.  Hoyle et al. suggests a novel site termed EGP bodies, or stress granules, may be responsible for mRNA storage as these sites lack the decapping enzyme.