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Updated: Feb 23, 2026

Author Spotlight: Optimizing Apoplast Protein Extraction for Efficient Recovery of Recombinant Proteins from Plant Cells
Published on: July 5, 2024
An Overview of Protein Secretion in Plant Cells
1State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Centre for Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China. ckinpan@gmail.com.
Abstract:
The delivery of proteins to the apoplast or protein secretion is an essential process in plant cells. Proteins are secreted to perform various biological functions such as cell wall modification and defense response. Conserved from yeast to mammals, both conventional and unconventional protein secretion pathways have been demonstrated in plants. In the conventional protein secretion pathway, secretory proteins with an N-terminal signal peptide are transported to the extracellular region via the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi apparatus and the subsequent endomembrane system. By contrast, multiple unconventional protein secretion pathways are proposed to mediate the secretion of the leaderless secretory proteins. In this review, we summarize the recent findings and provide a comprehensive overview of protein secretion pathways in plant cells.
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