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Vesicular transport: how many Ypt/Rab-GTPases make a eukaryotic cell?
1Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Molecular Genetics, Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
In eukaryotic cells, protein transport through the secretory and endocytic pathways is mediated by vesicular intermediates. Individual transport steps are regulated by Ras-like guanine nucleotide-binding proteins, termed Ypt in yeast or Rab in mammals. The complete sequencing of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome has revealed the total number of Ypt GTPases in this organism. There is some redundancy among the 11 Ypt proteins, and only those involved in the biosynthetic pathway are essential for cell viability.
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