LAUSR

The past decade has seen striking progress in our understanding of communication between organelles via close appositions of their membranes, known as contact sites. Recent systematic studies highlight that the cellular contact site landscape is much more intricate than previously anticipated and that most, if not all, organelles are capable of establishing such contacts with one another. Hence, the big challenge for this research field is to now step outside the comfort zone of the few highly studied examples of contact sites and a handful of molecules that are transferred at these sites, and to investigate the diversity of organelle contacts and the plethora of their cellular roles.Cellular organelles extensively communicate with each other by close interactions, known as membrane contact sites. Schuldiner and Bohnert comment on the progress of this rapidly developing field, highlighting that the complexity of interactions at membrane contact sites is only now starting to emerge.