Putting the brakes on the unfolded protein response

The unfolded protein response is an ancient cellular pathway for rapidly responding to endoplasmic reticulum stress. Two studies in this issue (Rubio et al. 2011. J. Cell. Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.201007077 and Chawla et al. 2011. J. Cell. Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.201008071) provide insight into how the unfolded protein response is tamped down to restore normal endoplasmic reticulum function. Although both papers implicate the Ire1 kinase domain as the key effector of the off-switch mechanism, alternate models for how this is achieved are proposed.