Post Golgi apparatus structures and membrane removal in plants

Summary In nongrowing secretory cells of plants, large quantities of membrane are transferred from the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane without a corresponding increase in cell surface area or accumulation of internal membranes. Movement and/or redistribution of membrane occurs also in trans Golgi apparatus cisternae which disappear after being sloughed from the dictyosome, and in secretory vesicles which lose much of their membrane in transit to the cell surface. These processes have been visualized in freeze-substituted corn rootcap cells and a structural basis for membrane loss during trafficking is seen. It involves three forms of coated membranes associated with the trans parts of the Golgi apparatus, with cisternae and secretory vesicles, and with plasma membranes. The coated regions of the plasma membrane were predominantly located at sites of recent fusion of secretory vesicles suggesting a vesicular mechanism of membrane removal. The two other forms of coated vesicles were associated with the trans cisternae, with secretory vesicles, and with a post Golgi apparatus tubular/vesicular network not unlike the TGN of animal cells. However, the trans Golgi network in plants, unlike that in animals, appears to derive directly from the trans cisternae and then vesiculate. The magnitude of the coated membrane-mediated contribution of the endocytic pathway to the formation of the TGN in rootcap cells is unknown. Continued formation of new Golgi apparatus cisternae would be required to maintain the relatively constant form of the Golgi apparatus and TGN, as is observed during periods of active secretion.