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The riddle of the plant vacuolar sorting receptors
F G Masclaux1, J-P Galaud, R Pont-Lezica
1Surfaces Cellulaires et Signalisation chez les Végétaux, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5546 de Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paul Sabatier, BP 42617 Auzeville, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France.
Abstract:
Proteins synthesized on membrane-bound ribosomes are sorted at the Golgi apparatus level for delivery to various cellular destinations: the plasma membrane or the extracellular space, and the lytic vacuole or lysosome. Sorting involves the assembly of vesicles, which preferentially package soluble proteins with a common destination. The selection of proteins for a particular vesicle type involves the recognition of proteins by specific receptors, such as the vacuolar sorting receptors for vacuolar targeting. Most eukaryotic organisms have one or two receptors to target proteins to the lytic vacuole. Surprisingly, plants have several members of the same family, seven in Arabidopsis thaliana. Why do plants have so many proteins to sort soluble proteins to their respective destinations? The presence of at least two types of vacuoles, lytic and storage, seems to be a partial answer. In this review we analyze the last experimental evidence supporting the presence of different subfamilies of plant vacuolar sorting receptors.
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