Discovery of New Phosphate-Storing Organelle in Fruit Fly Intestines.
Researchers have discovered a new type of organelle in animal cells that acts as a reservoir of phosphate, a molecule essential to life. The organelle helps regulate levels of the nutrient inside cells and triggers processes that maintain tissues when it is in short supply. The discovery was made in fruit-fly intestinal cells, which are a useful model for studying how diseases affect cells in the human intestine. The findings lay the groundwork for exploring whether there are similar phosphate-storing organelles in other animals, including humans.