Author
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Herman, Eliot |
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Submitted to: Current Opinion in Plant Biology
Publication Type: Book / Chapter Publication Acceptance Date: 9/26/2008 Publication Date: 12/1/2008 Citation: Herman, E.M. 2008. Endoplasmic Reticulum Bodies: Solving the Insoluble. Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 11(6):672-679. Interpretive Summary: This manuscript summarizes the current state of knowledge of how plants produce and accumulate insoluble substances that are important reserve substances including oil, protein, and rubber. The manuscript synthesizes a disparate set of data from the plant and animal cell literature to describe how plants produce insoluble accretions within the context of an aqueous cellular environment. The primary reader and user of this article will be academic scientists and plant science students who use this journal as source material. Technical Abstract: Plant cells produce and accumulate insoluble triglycerides, proteins and rubber that are assembled into inert ER-derived organelles broadly termed ER-bodies. ER-bodies appear to originate from tubular ER domains that are maintained by cytoskeletal interactions and integral ER proteins. ER-bodies sequestering insoluble substances usually are transferred to the vacuole, but sometimes remain as cytoplasmic organelles. Some otherwise soluble ER-synthesized proteins are converted to insoluble aggregates to produce ER-bodies for transfer to the vacuole. This process constitutes an alternate secretory system to assemble and traffic transport-incompetent insoluble materials. |
