A CRACker of an adaptor connects dynein-mediated transport to calcium signaling.

Many different adaptor proteins activate the processivity of dynein-dynactin complexes and determine the specific cargo for retrograde transport by binding cargo receptors such as Rab GTP-binding (G) proteins. In this issue, Wang et al. (2019. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201806097) identify two GTPases that can function directly as dynein adaptors during endocytosis and are regulated by calcium.