MECHANISMS OF CELL POLARITY - SORTING AND TRANSPORT IN EPITHELIAL-CELLS

The recent discovery of widely distributed targeting determinants, whi ch govern the polarized cell-surface distribution of plasma membrane p roteins in epithelial cells, has significantly changed our view of how polarized cells generate functionally distinct membrane domains. Toge ther with the surprising finding that the same determinants are recogn ized on both the biosynthetic and the endocytic pathways, it now appea rs likely that a common epigenetic code may exist that controls molecu lar sorting of membrane proteins in a wide variety of polarized, and p erhaps even non-polarized, cell types.