title: Functional organization of the porosome complex and associated structures facilitating cellular secretion.
abstract: Porosomes, the universal secretory machinery at the cell plasma membrane, are cup-shaped supramolecular lipoprotein structures, where membrane-bound vesicles transiently dock and fuse to release intravesicular contents during cell secretion. In this review, the discovery of the porosome and its structure, dynamics, composition, and functional reconstitution are outlined. Furthermore, the architecture of porosome-like structures such as the "canaliculi system" in human platelets and various associated structures such as the T-bars at the Drosophila synapse or the "beams," "ribs," and "pegs" at the frog neuromuscular junction, each organized to facilitate a certain specialized secretory activity, are briefly discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, USA. bjena@med.wayne.edu
authors.forename: Bhanu P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Jena
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D005089:Exocytosis / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D022142:Secretory Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism*; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008074:Lipoproteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins