Ríos et al. (2004) report in this issue that the Golgi protein GMAP-210 is sufficient to confer pericentrosomal positioning and recruits gamma-tubulin and associated microtubule-nucleating ring complex proteins to Golgi membranes. The results raise the possibility that short microtubules emanate from the Golgi to mediate its organization and positioning.

At some point in their lives all cells need to grow and divide. In eukaryotic cells these processes require the delivery of new proteins and lipids from their site of synthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the cell surface. The Golgi apparatus, first visualised under the light microscope in 1898 by Camillo Golgi using a staining method he had developed to study neurons, lies on the rout...