COATED VESICLES - A DIVERSITY OF FORM AND FUNCTION

In every well-characterized example, the small transport vesicles that mediate membrane trafficking between intracellular organelles are enc ased in a protein coat. In general, the coat proteins assemble from cy tosolic pools onto the membrane and play a critical role in vesicle fo rmation, Recent reviews have emphasized the clear similarities in the mechanisms that drive vesicle budding at distinct cellular locations. Here we focus on the diversity of solutions to an apparently related b iological task, These mechanistic differences are likely to be physiol ogically important determinants of the diversity in form and function of coated transport vesicles.