Vesicle Trafficking: ROP–RIC Roundabout

Vesicle Trafficking: ROP–RIC Roundabout

Mechanisms governing dynamic protein recycling include small GTPases that activate/inactivate their partner proteins to affect cytoskeletal dynamics, and thereby polar growth, asymmetric cell shape and physiological responses to external stimuli. Three recent studies illustrate the control of PIN endocytosis by ROP-RIC activity in leaf pavement cells and root cells.

LRRK2 and vesicle trafficking.

Mutations in LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) (also known as PARK8 or dardarin) are responsible for the autosomal-dominant form of PD (Parkinson's disease). LRRK2 mutations were found in approximately 3-5% of familial and 1-3% of sporadic PD cases with the highest prevalence (up to 40%) in North Africans and Ashkenazi Jews. To date, mutations in LRRK2 are a major genetic risk factor for fam...

Exercise-Regulated Vesicle Trafficking

Update on Vesicle Trafficking during Somatic Cytokinesis Vesicle Trafficking during Somatic Cytokinesis

Plant cytokinesis, the final event of cell division, generates two daughter cells by partitioning the cytoplasm of a mother cell. This depends on targeted secretion to generate a new plasma membrane (PM; Whaley and Mollenhauer, 1963; Samuels et al., 1995; Jurgens, 2005a, 2005b). Plant cells control cytokinesis by constructing a plant-specific cytoskeletal configuration, the phragmoplast (Zhang ...

Ceramidase regulates synaptic vesicle exocytosis and trafficking.

A screen for Drosophila synaptic dysfunction mutants identified slug-a-bed (slab). The slab gene encodes ceramidase, a central enzyme in sphingolipid metabolism and regulation. Sphingolipids are major constituents of lipid rafts, membrane domains with roles in vesicle trafficking, and signaling pathways. Null slab mutants arrest as fully developed embryos with severely reduced movement. The SLA...