Golgi Apparatus - Structure

Structure

Found within the cytoplasm of both plant and animal cells, the Golgi is composed of stacks of membrane-bound structures known as cisternae (singular: cisterna). An individual stack is sometimes called a dictyosome (from Greek dictyon: net + soma: body), especially in plant cells. A mammalian cell typically contains 40 to 100 stacks. Between four and eight cisternae are usually present in a stack; however, in some protists as many as sixty have been observed. Each cisterna comprises a flat, membrane enclosed disc that includes special Golgi enzymes which modify or help to modify cargo proteins that travel through it.

The cisternae stack has four functional regions: the cis-Golgi network, medial-Golgi, endo-Golgi, and trans-Golgi network. Vesicles from the endoplasmic reticulum (via the vesicular-tubular clusters) fuse with the network and subsequently progress through the stack to the trans Golgi network, where they are packaged and sent to their destination. Each region contains different enzymes which selectively modify the contents depending on where they reside. The cisternae also carry structural proteins important for their maintenance as flattened membranes which stack upon each other.