The cell's recycling trucks have a switch — scientists just found who flips it

Your cells run a constant recycling service: receptors and transport proteins are collected, sorted and sent back out for reuse instead of being rebuilt from scratch. At the University of Basel, a team led by Anne Spang with first author Jachen Solinger has found the switch that loads the right cargo for that return trip — a small protein called ARF-1 working with partners AP-1 and FERARI in a quick 'kiss-and-run' handoff. Published in the Journal of Cell Biology, the mechanism appears in roundworms, yeast and mammal cells alike, suggesting evolution has kept it for a very long time. When the switch was jammed on or off, recycling slowed. 'Cells don't reinvent the wheel every time,' says Spang — they reuse good ideas, and now we can see one of them clearly.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation