Partitioning endosomes

Endosomes carrying an activated receptor are divided equally by joining the mitotic spindle, as shown by Christian Bökel (Max Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany), Marcos González-Gaitán (Geneva University, Switzerland), and colleagues. Daughter cells thus start out on an equal signaling footing.

An equal share is key for cells that are reading ligand concentration gradients. The Dpp gradient, for example, helps developing fly wing cells to detect their position. Dpp and its bound receptor, called Tkv, are now shown to reside in a set of early endosomes that line up at the spindle midzone during anaphase.

By cytokinesis, the endosomes were found in two groups on either side of the midzone. The group is now trying to identify the molecular links between endosomes and the spindle. They hope to...