Golgi Apparatus - Transport Mechanism

Transport Mechanism

The transport mechanism which proteins use to progress through the Golgi apparatus is not yet clear; however a number of hypotheses currently exist. Until recently, the vesicular transport mechanism was favoured but now more evidence is coming to light to support cisternal maturation. The two proposed models may actually work in conjunction with each other, rather than being mutually exclusive. This is sometimes referred to as the combined model.

• Cisternal maturation model: the cisternae of the Golgi apparatus move by being built at the cis face and destroyed at the trans face. Vesicles from the endoplasmic reticulum fuse with each other to form a cisterna at the cis face, consequently this cisterna would appear to move through the Golgi stack when a new cisterna is formed at the cis face. This model is supported by the fact that structures larger than the transport vesicles, such as collagen rods, were observed microscopically to progress through the Golgi apparatus. This was initially a popular hypothesis, but lost favour in the 1980s. Recently it has made a comeback, as laboratories at the University of Chicago and the University of Tokyo have been able to use new technology to directly observe Golgi compartments maturing. Additional evidence comes from the fact that COPI vesicles move in the retrograde direction, transporting endoplasmic reticulum proteins back to where they belong by recognizing a signal peptide.

• Vesicular transport model: Vesicular transport views the Golgi as a very stable organelle, divided into compartments in the cis to trans direction. Membrane bound carriers transport material between the endoplasmic reticulum and the different compartments of the Golgi. Experimental evidence includes the abundance of small vesicles (known technically as shuttle vesicles) in proximity to the Golgi apparatus. To direct the vesicles, actin filaments connect packaging proteins to the membrane to ensure that they fuse with the correct compartment.