Trafficking Inside Cells: Pathways, Mechanisms and Regulation

The intra-cellular trafficking field has made a quantum leap in the last few decades. The three sections of this book cover the past, present and future of this rapidly developing field. The first section is about the compartments and pathways defined more than 50 years ago by the pioneering studies of George Palade, who received the Nobel Prize for this work. However, as shown in the chapters in this section, new approaches that allow us to study the dynamics of these compartments and pathways have revealed that the compartments are not as stable as was previously thought. Several issues discussed within this section are still controversial. The second section on mechanisms is what the field has been focused on during the last 20-25 years. This is the largest section of the book. Starting with the work of James Rothman and Randy Schekman, components of the machinery were identified and mechanisms were deciphered. Using in vivo and in vitro approaches combined with genomics and proteomics, the highly conserved molecular machines that move vesicles between cellular compartments are being characterized. This phase is also not complete yet, but a clear picture is beginning to emerge. Based on the foundation of the pathways and the machinery components, the field is now embarking on understanding how individual transport steps are regulated, how successive steps are integrated into whole pathways, and how these pathways are coordinated with other cellular processes. The third section belongs to the future, and addresses issues of increasing importance in this area.