Vesicular Transport in the Secretory and Endocytic Pathways

The concept of vesicular traffic as a means of protein transport in and out of cells and between membrane compartments has been established since the 1960s. Its basic principles are beautifully simple, yet the details of protein transport are complex enough to find novel classes of transport vesicles, and trafficking itineraries still being described to date. In this treatise, the reader will be introduced to mechanisms of vesicle sculpting, cargo selection, vesicle targeting, and vesicle consumption that have emerged as common characteristics of multiple transport steps in the exocytic and endocytic pathways. These fundamentals also reveal the basis for the specificity and selectivity of individual transport steps. We will further discuss how protein transport might lead to the establishment and maintenance of the endomembrane system of eukaryotic cells. The concepts for these mechanisms are based on experimental evidence combined with mathematical modeling that can disclose the minimal requirements for the generation of the distinct membrane compartments.