Getting through the Golgi complex

Electron micrographs of the Golgi apparatus typically show a series of flat cisternae stacked together, surrounded by numerous vesicles and tubules. Palade and colleagues established in the 1960s that secretory proteins pass through this morphologically complex organelle as they travel from the endoplasmic reticulum to the cell surface. However, the precise mechanism of transport through the cisternal stack has proven a controversial issue. Recent advances in identifying the molecules responsible for this traffic suggest that the solution may not be far away.