When yeast cells face environmental stress, such as exposure to hydrogen peroxide, their internal operations can begin to malfunction. For example, a particular protein misfolds and no longer functions as well. This hardly seems surprising, but as usual there is more to the story. It seems that the misfolded protein normally helps to terminate the synthesis of new proteins. But when it is misfolded, some of the newly formed proteins end up a bit longer, with more information added. And the added information is not just random garbage–it helps the cells adjust to the environmental stress which brought about the change in the first place. Read more