Regulatory mechanisms of protein sorting in post-Golgi membrane trafficking

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Membrane trafficking in the post-Golgi endomembrane system of plant cells is still poorly understood, although developmental processes as well as biotic and abiotic interactions with the environment require regulated delivery to and retrieval from the plasma membrane of receptors and their ligands, transporters and membrane-fusion effectors. The main goal of this proposal is to identify regulatory mechanisms underlying protein sorting in post-Golgi trafficking. The focus will be on members of five protein families involved in vesicle formation, cargo selection or vesicle fusion with target membranes: guanine-nucleotide exchange factors regulating ARF GTPase activity (ARF-GEFs), their ARF substrates, the μ-adaptin subunits of adaptor protein (AP) complexes mediating cargo sorting into forming vesicles, and Rab GTPases and syntaxins both of which contribute to the specificity of membrane fusion. The experimental approaches include subcellular protein localisation, genetic or experimental interference with protein function, and analysis of trafficking of soluble and membrane-bound cargo in normal and disrupted pathways. The anticipated results will also provide the community with new resources such as markers for intracellular protein localisation.