Membrane Trafficking in Plants

Plant membrane trafficking shares many features with other eukaryotic organisms, including the machinery for vesicle formation and fusion. However, the plant endomembrane system lacks an ER-Golgi intermediate compartment, has numerous Golgi stacks and several types of vacuoles, and forms a transient compartment during cell division. ER-Golgi trafficking involves bulk flow and efficient recycling of H/KDEL-bearing proteins. Sorting in the Golgi stacks separates bulk flow to the plasma membrane from receptor-mediated trafficking to the lytic vacuole. Cargo for the protein storage vacuole is delivered from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), cis-Golgi, and trans-Golgi. Endocytosis includes recycling of plasma membrane proteins from early endosomes. Late endosomes appear identical with the multivesiculate prevacuolar compartment that lies on the Golgi-vacuole trafficking pathway. In dividing cells, homotypic fusion of Golgi-derived vesicles forms the cell plate, which expands laterally by targeted vesicle fusion at its margin, eventually fusing with the plasma membrane.