How viruses avoid stress.

Cellular responses to counter virus infection lead to the induction of cytoplasmic stress granules, which are composed of translationally stalled mRNAs. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, White and colleagues elucidate a mechanism where a poliovirus protease specifically cleaves a host cell factor involved in assembly of stress granules. This strategy ensures viral access to the limiting amounts of translation factors and interferes with host cell mRNA sorting.