The study and manipulation of compartmentalization and traffic in plant cells

Compartmentalization and traffic of endomembranes is at the base of eukaryotic cell organization involving very different molecular mechanisms: coated vesicles traffic, tubular traffic, biogenesis and turn-over of membranous compartments. Each compartment can be seen in a maturation process dependent on crosstalk between different traffic mechanisms (a). It is particularly true for vacuoles, compartments usually classified according to their functions, as protein storage vacuoles (PSV), lytic vacuoles (LVs), Senescence Associated Vacuoles (SAV), Vacuolinos or NaCl accumulating vacuoles. We explore the crosstalk of traffic routes of different vacuolar proteins. Comparing the traffic of soluble markers partially able to bypass the Golgi, and the interaction of different vacuolar transmembrane proteins, some following direct, other Golgi-mediated traffic from ER to tonoplast (b), we provide new insight for the endomembrane traffic comprehension.