Once upon a time scientists didn't know how proteins where trafficked and changed along the Golgi apparatus. Some argued they were transported in vesicles from one type of cisterna to the other, where they were differently altered by different resident proteins. Others argued that the cisternae themselves were mobile and could become the next cisterna in sequence by the retrograde trafficking of the required enzymes... There was much pain and confusion, and the scientists were not happy. Until one day one group of scientists decided to see if little green dots on cells could become red. And they could. Everyone was happy, and they lived happily ever after...
--> The moment of truth- when green becomes red- and our understanding of life, the universe and everything changes...
As Dr Gareth Evans has put it, on the email that kindly provided the link to this movie:
'You can then get the popcorn in and enjoy the show! (obviously you'll also enjoy the fantastic educational benefits of a green spot changing to a red spot) '
Basically a protein specific of cis cisterna (Man-6-P receptor) was labelled with GFP while one from trans cisterna (ARF proteins) was labelled with dsRed. The fact that a single cisterna changes colour indicates that are the enzymes that trafick between cisterna changing proteins, rather than proteins to be changed that trafick to different cisterna.
The original reference: Losev et al., (2006). Golgi maturation visualized in living yeast, Nature, 441. 1002-6
2 comments:
it is amazing how in biology something as simple as a video of a change in colour is simple enough to almost settle an argument that has been going on for years!
Good for people to know.
Post a Comment