Bridging the Gap: Membrane Contact Sites in Signaling, Metabolism, and Organelle Dynamics

Overview

Journal J Cell Biol

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2014 Jun 25

PMID 24958771

Citations 195

Authors

William A Prinz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Regions of close apposition between two organelles, often referred to as membrane contact sites (MCSs), mostly form between the endoplasmic reticulum and a second organelle, although contacts between mitochondria and other organelles have also begun to be characterized. Although these contact sites have been noted since cells first began to be visualized with electron microscopy, the functions of most of these domains long remained unclear. The last few years have witnessed a dramatic increase in our understanding of MCSs, revealing the critical roles they play in intracellular signaling, metabolism, the trafficking of metabolites, and organelle inheritance, division, and transport.

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