title: Stacking the odds for Golgi cisternal maturation.
abstract: What is the minimal set of cell-biological ingredients needed to generate a Golgi apparatus? The compositions of eukaryotic organelles arise through a process of molecular exchange via vesicle traffic. Here we statistically sample tens of thousands of homeostatic vesicle traffic networks generated by realistic molecular rules governing vesicle budding and fusion. Remarkably, the plurality of these networks contain chains of compartments that undergo creation, compositional maturation, and dissipation, coupled by molecular recycling along retrograde vesicles. This motif precisely matches the cisternal maturation model of the Golgi, which was developed to explain many observed aspects of the eukaryotic secretory pathway. In our analysis cisternal maturation is a robust consequence of vesicle traffic homeostasis, independent of the underlying details of molecular interactions or spatial stacking. This architecture may have been exapted rather than selected for its role in the secretion of large cargo.
authors.affiliation: Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Somya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mani
authors.affiliation: Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Mukund
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2558-6517
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thattai
mesh_terms: D006056:Golgi Apparatus / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D001678:Organelle Biogenesis
keywords: Boolean models; Golgi apparatus; cell biology; cisternal maturation; none; statistical cell biology; vesicle traffic