Cellular structures known as midbodies, formed during cell division, appear to accumulate in stem cells and cancer cells, hinting at a potential function for these once-disregarded organelles. Midbodies, once considered the rubbish of cell division, might have a function beyond their role in getting daughter cells to separate. Researchers show in today’s Nature Cell Biology that stem cells and cancer cells collect used midbodies, whereas differentiated cells digest the organelle through autophagy.
