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Updated: May 28, 2026

Visualization of Endoplasmic Reticulum Subdomains in Cultured Cells
Published on: February 18, 2014
An evolving paradigm for the secretory pathway?
1Cell Biology and Metabolism Program, Eunice Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. lippincj@mail.nih.gov
Abstract:
The paradigm that the secretory pathway consists of a stable endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, using discrete transport vesicles to exchange their contents, gained important support from groundbreaking biochemical and genetic studies during the 1980s. However, the subsequent development of new imaging technologies with green fluorescent protein introduced data on dynamic processes not fully accounted for by the paradigm. As a result, we may be seeing an example of how a paradigm is evolving to account for the results of new technologies and their new ways of describing cellular processes.
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