Tracking down the elusive early endosome.
Despite significant progress in understanding protein trafficking and compartmentation in plants, the identification and protein compartmentalization for organelles that belong to both the secretory and endocytic pathways have been difficult because protein trafficking has generally been studied separately in these two pathways. However, recent data indicate that the trans-Golgi network serves as an early endosome merging the secretory and endocytic pathways in plant cells. Here, we discuss the proteins identified as markers for post-Golgi compartments in these two pathways and propose that the trans-Golgi network is a pivotal organelle with multiple sorting domains for post-Golgi protein trafficking in plant cells.
Lam
Sheung Kwan
SK
Department of Biology and Molecular Biotechnology Program, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
Tse
Yu Chung
YC
Department of Biology and Molecular Biotechnology Program, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
Robinson
David G
DG
Department of Cell Biology, Heidelberg Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Jiang
Liwen
L
Department of Biology and Molecular Biotechnology Program, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: ljiang@cuhk.edu.hk.
D004705:Endocytosis; D011992:Endosomes / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D010944:Plants / Q000648:ultrastructure; D021601:trans-Golgi Network / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure