the article over generalizes the find to be basically bereft of real information.<p>&quot;Instead of working as enzymes (proteins that facilitate reactions inside the cell) the proteins were now what’s known as an interaction domain. They could communicate with and bind to other proteins, a useful skill for cells that have decided to trade the rugged individualist life for the collaboration of a group&quot;<p>Enzymes switch between being enzymes and interaction domians across all taxa everywhere in the tree of life, so this is not the &quot;money shot&quot;.  Moreover, unicellular life do plenty of intracellular, collaborative communication (e.g. quorum sensing).<p>Reading the paper, the specific switch enabled the orientation of cell division to be communicated from one cell to another.  This is interesting because this communication is not over an anisotropic chemical gradient, but encodes directional and spatial information.