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Updated: Jun 17, 2025

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
Jing Tang1,2, Kin Pan Chung3, Yonglun Zeng4,5
1State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academic of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Newly synthesized proteins are delivered to the apoplast via conventional or unconventional protein secretion in eukaryotes. In plants, proteins are secreted to perform various biological functions. Conserved from yeast to mammals, both conventional and unconventional protein secretion pathways have been revealed in plants. In the conventional protein secretion pathway, secretory proteins with a signal peptide are translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum and transported to the extracellular region via the endomembrane system. On the contrary, unconventional protein secretion pathways have been demonstrated to mediate the secretion of the leaderless secretory proteins. In this chapter, we summarize the updated findings and provide a comprehensive overview of protein secretion pathways in plants.
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