Cellular transport and secretion

Cells continuously ferry proteins, lipids, and signaling molecules between compartments by packaging cargo into small membrane-bound vesicles, a process that requires precisely coordinated machinery to determine what gets moved, where it goes, and when the vesicle fuses with its target membrane. Rab GTPases act as molecular address labels on vesicle surfaces, while SNARE proteins drive the actual membrane fusion event, and clathrin coats help sculpt vesicles at the plasma membrane during endocytosis; phosphoinositides serve as spatial cues that recruit the right proteins to the right membrane at the right time. Disruptions to this trafficking network underlie diseases ranging from lysosomal storage disorders to neurodegeneration and cancer, making it a medically consequential area of study. Researchers are actively working out how the ESCRT machinery sorts damaged receptors for degradation, how cells tune trafficking in response to metabolic state, and how individual trafficking steps are coordinated across the cell as a whole.

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Keywords

EndocytosisMembrane FusionRab ProteinsClathrin-Mediated EndocytosisSNARE ProteinsESCRT Machinery