Epithelial trafficking: new routes to familiar places

Research carried out in mammalian epithelial cell systems over the past 25 years has delineated pathways and sorting signals involved in polarized delivery of plasma membrane proteins. Recently some progress has been made in the identification of mechanisms underlying this polarized trafficking and in the visualization of trafficking routes in live cells. A promising area of research is the study of trafficking functions of novel polarity genes identified in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans.