Conference: The 1999 ASCB/EMBO Meeting, "Membrane Trafficking & the Cytoskeleton": An Integrated View, to be held June 26-30, 1999, in Santa Maria Imbaro, Italy

这次会议提供了一个机会，使两个主要不同的研究小组首次聚集在一起，他们的研究工作多年来一直针对一个共同的主题。这个主题是膜运输，特别是在分泌和内吞途径内。膜运输可以看作是一个双面硬币。一面正在被传统的膜“贩子”研究。该小组的工作主要集中在鉴定和表征转运中间体从供体膜出芽和切除的调节因子，以及这些中间体与受体膜的靶向，对接和融合。众所周知，这些过程中涉及的因素包括COPs、SNAPs、SNAREs、NSF和各种gtp酶。膜运输硬币的另一面正在被“驾车者”调查。该小组主要关注细胞骨架结构、分子马达和连接蛋白，它们控制细胞质内膜室如何在空间上组织，并作为运输囊泡在供体和受体室之间移动的高速公路。这一领域的大部分工作都集中在微管和动力蛋白家族的运动蛋白上，但最近的研究也强调了微丝和肌球蛋白运动在膜运输中的重要性。对膜运输的全面了解的发展将需要整合贩运者和驾车者获得的数据。因此，会议的主要目标是弥合目前两组人之间在理解和欣赏方面的差距。在快速发展的膜运输领域，将走私者和驾车者聚集在同一地点和时间将为信息交流和思想交流提供前所未有的机会。

This meeting represents an opportunity to bring together, for the first time, two largely distinct groups whose research efforts have been aimed at a common topic for many years. That topic is membrane transport, particularly within the secretory and endocytotic pathways. Membrane transport can be regarded as a two-sided coin. One side is being studied by traditional membrane "traffickers". The work of this group has been focused on the identification and characterization of regulatory factors for the budding and excision of transport intermediates from donor membranes, and the targeting, docking and fusion of those intermediates to acceptor membranes. Well known examples of factors involved in these processes include COPs, SNAPs, SNAREs, NSF and a variety of GTPases. The other side of the membrane transport coin is being investigated by "motorists". This group has been primarily concerned with the cytoskeletal structures, molecular motors and linker proteins that control how endomembrane compartments are spatially organized within the cytoplasm, and serve as highways along which transport vesicles move between donor and acceptor compartments. Most work in this area has focused on microtubules, and motor proteins of the kinesin and dynein families, but recent studies have also emphasized the importance of microfilaments and myosin motors in membrane transport. The development of a comprehensive understanding of membrane transport will require integration of data obtained both by the traffickers and the motorists. The primary goal of the meeting, therefore, is to bridge the gap of understanding and appreciation that presently separates the two groups. Bringing together traffickers and motorists at the same place and time will provide an unprecedented opportunity for exchange of information and cross-fertilization of ideas in the rapidly progressing field of membrane transport.