Stardust, the Janus-faced partner of Crumbs

Abstract

The Drosophila melanogaster scaffolding protein Stardust (Sdt) stabilizes the transmembrane protein Crumbs, a conserved regulator of apical-basal epithelial polarity. In this issue, Perez-Mockus et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https ://doi .org /10 .1083 /jcb .201611196) report that a subset of Sdt isoforms are targeted by the ubiquitin ligase Neuralized, thus fine tuning the endocytosis and activity of this apical determinant.