Inositol lipids first came into the limelight in the 1980s when they were identified as a source of second messengers after cleavage by phospholipase C. In the 1990s they emerged under a different guise — intact inositol lipids were found to interact directly with proteins and to participate in exocytosis (release of messenger molecules from cells), cytoskeletal reorganization and vesicle transport. A report by Simonsen et al. on page 494 of this issue now sheds light on how intracel-lular vesicle transport is connected to inositol lipids. And studies by Gaullier et al. and Patki et al. (pages 432 and 433), and Bird and Emr in Molecular Cell, feature the protein domain through which this interaction with inositol lipids occurs.
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