Albino3’s got a new friend: meet YidC which scientists say may be the gateway to cellular life.Researchers in Ohio believe that they have discovered a protein portal without which animal cells cannot survive. YidC is a protein known to science for some time but its exact function had not been determined. The Ohio crew have discovered that without YidC other proteins cannot traverse intracellular or intercellular membranes, and the cell dies. As Ron Dalby, professor of chemistry at Ohio State University explained: “Proteins are synthesised within the cytoplasm of the cell but they then have to be transported, or inserted, wither across the membrane or into the membranes of organelles within the cell to do their work. The membranes function as barriers, and block proteins and other compounds from areas in which they do not belong”.The discovery of this function of YidC has shut down the theory that that there are independent proteins [for example the nomadic Procoat] that can pass through membranes at will. Perhaps most significantly, basic template similarities were found with portals in other life forms. The process of membrane insertion is required for cellular life in bacteria as well as for photosynthesis in the cholorplasts of plants. An analysis of the gene sequencing of YidC with the protein that performs the same function in plants - Albino3 - was considered by Dalby to be “so similar that it makes you believe they’re evolutionarily linked.” The scientists hope that further research into YidC and related proteins may offer new ways of enhancing cell function or accelerating cell death. You have been warned.