Highways for protein delivery to the mitochondria

Messenger RNA (mRNA) localisation is one of the prime mechanisms to ensure protein localisation in the cytoplasm of polarised embryonic cells, and has been well-studied in the development of Xenopus and Drosophila embryos. But what of other cells? Here, we discuss whether the directed transport of mRNA out of the nucleus, following cytoplasmic highways to a specified organelle in the cytoplasm, might also contribute to the exquisite fidelity of protein targeting observed in all eukaryotic cells.