The Diversity of Rab Proteins in Vesicle Transport

Rab proteins have been primarily implicated in vesicle docking as regulators of SNARE pairing. Recent findings, however, indicate that their function in vesicle trafficking can go beyond this role, and a number of proteins, unrelated to each other, have been identified as putative Rab effectors. Although the GTPase switch of Rab proteins is highly conserved, functional mechanisms may be highly diversified among members of the Rab family.