Hop-on hop-off: Polysomes take a tour of the cell on endosomes

After export from the nucleus, ribosomes need to be distributed throughout the entire cell so that protein synthesis can occur even at distant sites. In the elongated hyphal cell of the fungus Ustilago maydis, Higuchi et al. (2014. J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201307164) now demonstrate that polysomes associate with early endosomes that undergo kinesin 3– and dynein-dependent long-range motility. The bidirectional movement of early endosomes randomly distributes polysomes, which may ensure the even distribution of the translation machinery across the entire cell.