Endocytosis and intracellular transport of ricin: recent discoveries

The plant toxin ricin has proven valuable as a membrane marker in studies of endocytosis as well as studies of different intracellular transport steps. The toxin, which consists of two polypeptide chains, binds by one chain (the B-chain) to both glycolipids and glycoproteins with terminal galactose at the cell surface. The other chain (the A-chain) enters the cytosol and inhibits protein synthesis enzymatically. After binding the toxin is endocytosed by different mechanisms, and it is transported via endosomes to the Golgi apparatus and the endoplasmic reticulum before translocation of the A-chain to the cytosol. The different transport steps have been analyzed by studying trafficking of ricin as well as modified ricin molecules.