title: On phagosome individuality and membrane signalling networks.
abstract: Cells such as macrophages take up pathogens into specialized membrane organelles (phagosomes) that fuse with other organelles, including lysosomes, in a process termed maturation. The fully matured phagolysosome is a low-pH, hydrolase-rich killing device that some pathogens can bypass. One might expect that phagosomes containing a given type of particle that entered cells simultaneously via the same receptor would behave the same, at least in a single cell. Surprisingly, however, recent data show that phagosomes formed via the same receptors can find themselves in different chemical states even within the same macrophage. Here, I argue that each phagosome is an individual entity whose behaviour depends on a finite number of stable equilibrium states in its membrane signalling networks.
authors.affiliation: EMBL, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Postfach 102209, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. griffiths@embl.de
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D010588:Phagosomes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*