Fruit-fly cells use previously unknown complex cellular structures to store phosphate, a molecule essential to life
Phosphate is essential to life. Now, researchers have discovered a tiny structure inside animal cells that acts like a reservoir of phosphate, helping to regulate levels of the nutrient inside cells and triggering processes that maintain tissues when it is in short supply1. The researchers classify the structure as a new type of organelle — fundamental structures in cells, such as the nucleus, mitochondria and the membrane, that function as miniature organs in its body.
