If a cell runs low on sugar, it stores certain messenger RNAs in order to prolong its life. As a research group at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has now discovered, the protein Puf5p determines whether individual messenger RNAs will be stored or degraded when sugar levels are low. The study published in eLife shows that Puf5p therefore sends the messenger RNAs to a cell organelle where their fate is sealed.