Recycling Tip

As components move along a factory assembly line, some parts are added and others removed to be returned to the start and reused, until the finished product arrives at the tip of the conveyor belt, ready for action. This is how filaments of some fungi develop, with a balance of material deposition at the growing tip, and reabsorption further back. A new study investigated how the protein actin (green in the timelapse of filament growth in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans, maintaining its function even as pink genetic material divides) drives this recycling, or endocytosis. They discovered an important role of a protein called Dip1 that seeds filaments so actin can form branching networks, as well as independent mechanisms that synthesise the seeds themselves. Taken together, the research reveals fundamental biology of cell shape and material trafficking, could point to potential anti-fungal vulnerabilities, and could inform biotechnologies using fungi as cellular factories to produce proteins or pharmaceuticals.

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Marisa Delgado & Mario Pinar, and colleagues
• Department of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, CSIC Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas, Madrid, Spain
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Genetics, August 2025