Entry and exit mechanisms at the cis-face of the Golgi complex. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 3: a005207

Vesicular transport of protein and lipid cargo from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to cis-Golgi compartments depends on coat protein complexes, Rab GTPases, tethering factors, and membrane fusion catalysts. ER-derived vesicles deliver cargo to an ER-Golgi intermedi-ate compartment (ERGIC) that then fuses with and/or matures into cis-Golgi compartments. The forward transport pathway to cis-Golgi compartments is balanced by a retrograde directed pathway that recycles transport machinery back to the ER. How trafficking through the ERGIC and cis-Golgi is coordinated tomaintain organelle structure and function is poorly understood and highlights central questions regarding trafficking routes and organ-ization of the early secretory pathway. Newly synthesized secretory proteins andlipids are transported to early Golgi com-partments in dissociative carrier vesicles that are formed from the ER (Palade 1975). Through the development of biochemical, genetic and morphological approaches, outlines for the molecular machinery that catalyze this trans