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Letter

Nature Cell Biology 7, 1232–1239 (1 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/ncb1324

Endocytic control of epithelial polarity and proliferation in Drosophila

Han Lu & David Bilder

Intracellular protein transport is a key factor in epithelial cell polarity. Here we report that mutations in two core components of the vesicle trafficking machinery — a syntaxin and a Rab protein — cause an expansion of the apical membrane domain of Drosophila melanogaster epithelia; this polarity defect is coupled with overproliferation to form neoplastic tumours.