Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is strongly linked to development and disease. For example, neurodegenerative diseases often involve protein misfolding and aggregation. Bae et al. examined why ER stress leads to relocalization of the cell's degradative organelles, the lysosomes, which cluster around the microtubule organizing center. Repositioning allows cells to degrade protein aggregates more effectively, leading to better survival rates for cells under stress. During ER stress, lysosomal repositioning relies on degradation of a particular messenger RNA called Blos1. Preventing Blos1 degradation prevents lysosome relocalization and sensitizes cells to stress, which culminates in cytotoxic ubiquitinated aggregates, causing cell death.
J. Cell Biol. 10.1083/jcb.201809027 (2019).











