1999 ASCB/EMBO MEETING

我们正在组织的这次会议是一次机会，首次将两个基本上不同的团体聚集在一起，多年来，这两个团体的研究工作一直针对一个共同的主题。 这个主题是膜转运，特别是在分泌和内吞途径。 膜转运可以被看作是一个双面硬币。 一面被传统的膜“贩子”研究。 这个小组的工作一直集中在鉴定和表征的调节因子的出芽和切除的运输中间体从供体膜，和靶向，对接和融合的中间体受体膜。 参与这些过程的因素的众所周知的例子包括COP、SNAP、SNARE、NSF和各种GTP酶。 膜运输硬币的另一面正在被“驾驶者”研究。 该研究组主要关注细胞骨架结构、分子马达和连接蛋白，它们控制内膜区室在细胞质内的空间组织方式，并作为运输囊泡在供体区室和受体区室之间移动的高速公路沿着。这一领域的大部分工作集中在微管，以及驱动蛋白和动力蛋白家族的马达蛋白，但最近的研究也强调了微丝和肌球蛋白马达在膜运输中的重要性。 发展膜运输的全面理解将需要整合贩运者和驾驶者获得的数据。 因此，这次会议的主要目标是弥合目前两个群体之间在理解和欣赏方面的差距。 另一个目标是强调膜转运在疾病中的作用。 将贩运者和驾驶者聚集在同一地点和时间将为在迅速发展的膜运输领域交流信息和相互交流思想提供前所未有的机会。

The meeting that we are organizing 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 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 targetting, 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. An additional goal is to emphasize the role of membrane transport in disease. 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.