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. 2010 Nov 16;107(46):19614-8.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1011016107. Epub 2010 Nov 2.

How the Golgi works: a cisternal progenitor model

Suzanne R Pfeffer  1
Affiliations

How the Golgi works: a cisternal progenitor model

Suzanne R Pfeffer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

The Golgi complex is a central processing compartment in the secretory pathway of eukaryotic cells. This essential compartment processes more than 30% of the proteins encoded by the human genome, yet we still do not fully understand how the Golgi is assembled and how proteins pass through it. Recent advances in our understanding of the molecular basis for protein transport through the Golgi and within the endocytic pathway provide clues to how this complex organelle may function and how proteins may be transported through it. Described here is a possible model for transport of cargo through a tightly stacked Golgi that involves continual fusion and fission of stable, "like" subcompartments and provides a mechanism to grow the Golgi complex from a stable progenitor, in an ordered manner.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
(A) Electron micrograph of the Golgi complex of a guinea pig exocrine pancreas cell. Note the tight stacking of individual cisternae and discontinuities within a given cisterna. © Rockefeller University Press, 1981. Originally published in J. Cell Biol. 91:77s. (B) Rab GTPases specify their successor to provide directionality in membrane traffic events. In a so-called “Rab cascade,” RabA can recruit a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that will activate the subsequent acting RabB. Activated Rabs are stabilized on membranes by binding their cognate effector proteins. RabB can also recruit a GAP that inactivates nearby RabA, to create a separate membrane microdomain.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Transport through the Golgi and Golgi stack creation in a cisternal progenitor model. (A) Consider a stably stacked Golgi where each cisterna is marked by a different Rab protein. The stack can grow if a Rab cascade builds sequential domains that can fuse with like domains (RabB regions with other RabB regions). RabA will create an adjacent RabB domain that may segregate by fission within the stack (B). The RabB bleb would fuse with the stable RabB cisterna, thereby growing. This process can include cargo. Alternatively (or simultaneously), vesicles may carry cargo from a RabA compartment to a RabB compartment by “heterotypic fusion.” Importantly, the RabA compartment is stable and the progenitor of the RabB compartment. The RabB compartment has the capacity to remove RabA for redelivery to the cis Golgi (C). (D) Loss of cisternal morphology in cells lacking p37 (reprinted from Developmental Cell, 11 /6, Keiji Uchiyama, Go Totsukawa, Maija Puhka, Yayoi Kaneko, Eija Jokitalo, Ingrid Dreveny, Fabienne Beuron, Xiaodong Zhang, Paul Freemont, Hisao Kondo, p37 Is a p97 Adaptor Required for Golgi and ER Biogenesis in Interphase and at the End of Mitosis, p 14, Copyright (2006), with permission from Elsevier. http://www.cell.com/developmental-cell/). Premise 1 states that Golgi stacks undergo continuous, reversible fission and fusion.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Large cargoes can move across the stack by “alternative” homotypic fusion. Here, Rab cascades create multidomain cisternae that can provide homotypic fusion capacity between distinct cisternal compartments. This would allow a large cargo such as collagen (shown) to access all Golgi compartments without leaving the stack or requiring cisternal progression.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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