Egg P bodies protect maternal gene messages

A cell decides what proteins to make based on the messages it receives from its genome. Sometimes messages are held back to be read later, and in most cell types these delayed messages are stored and eventually marked for destruction in P bodies (processing bodies). P bodies in worm egg cells, however, are message protectors, according to a paper by Boag et al. to be published in the Aug 11th issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. In a separate study Noble et al. report that worm eggs have different flavors of P bodies depending on developmental stage.