Sorting of soluble proteins in the secretory pathway of plants

The secretory pathway of plants is a network of organelles that communicate via vesicle transport. This process involves budding on donor membranes fo llowed by their targeting to, recognition by and fusion with the acceptor m embrane. Protein sorting through the plant secretory pathway is a process t hat requires the specific recognition of signals by receptor molecules. For soluble proteins, recognition takes place in the lumen of the secretory pa thway. The sorting receptors must mediate signal transduction across the me mbrane to convey the information about the presence of cargo molecules to c ytosolic factors, which regulate the formation of transport vesicles. Recen tly, a number of key elements in this process have been identified, providi ng tools to study protein sorting at the molecular level.