THE PATHWAY TO THE CELL AND ITS ORGANELLES - 100 YEARS OF THE GOLGI-APPARATUS

The foundations of the modem knowledge of the cell and its constituent s are tightly linked to methodological breakthroughs. The existence of the Golgi apparatus, which is the cell organelle that plays a key rol e in the processing and targeting of proteins, was reported by Camillo Golgi in 1898. Golgi detected this novel structure in nerve cells sta ined with the silver impregnation he had developed for the study of th e nervous tissue. For 50 years, the Golgi apparatus stimulated cytolog ical studies, but its reality was questioned. The morphology of the Go lgi apparatus and its dignity of being a genuine cell organelle were f inally recognized in the mid-1950s by electron microscopy. Linked to t he name of the organelle he discovered one century ago, Golgi is thus a protagonist of the history of cytology and cell biology.