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Membrane transport

Green light for Golgi traffic

Nature volume 389, pages 17–19 (1997)Cite this article

When eukaryotic cells secrete proteins, they do so by a circuitous route. The proteins are folded and assembled within a membrane-enclosed organelle, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), whose membrane and internal contents are specialized for the job. They are then transported to the Golgi apparatus, and from there to the cell surface.

It is widely accepted that the intermediate steps in this process involve the budding and fusion of small vesicles. But the sites at which they form and fuse, and the number of such steps, have remained hotly debated topics. Now, however, in an elegant use of green fluorescent protein (GFP), Presley et al.1 (page 81 of this issue) have answered a major outstanding question about the first step — from ER to Golgi. A few moments of time-lapse videoFootnote 1are enough to resolve an issue that years of microscopy on fixed cells have failed to settle. And the study also poses a new set of questions for the future.

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Figure 1: In an elegant study using green fluorescent protein, Presley et al.
Figure 2: Proteins can also be transported from the ER to the Golgi over long distances, from sites that are randomly distributed around the.

Notes

  1. * The video is at //http://dir.nichd.nih.gov/CBMB/pbllabob.html

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  1. Hugh R. B. Pelham is in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, UK

    Hugh R. B. Pelham

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  1. Hugh R. B. Pelham
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Pelham, H. Green light for Golgi traffic. Nature 389, 17–19 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/37870

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