Presidential address. The role of neuronal golgi apparatus in a centripetal membrane vesicular traffic.

ABSTRACT

The adsorptive endocytosis of conjugates of the marker enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) with lectins and cholera toxin was studied in cultured neurons, neuroblastoma cells, and, in vivo, in the rat, by electron microscopic cytochemical (HRP), quantitative autoradiographic, morphometric, and biochemical techniques. The uptake of ricin-HRP by cultured neuroblastoma cells is 100 to 200 times greater than free HRP; furthermore, ricin does not stimulate the fluid phase endocytosis of HRP. Conjugates of wheat germ agglutinin and cholera toxin with HRP are 10 to 40 times more sensitive than free HRP in tracing retrograde connections in the rat central and peripheral nervous system. Conjugates of various ligands with HRP undergo endocytosis into the cisternae of the Golgi apparatus (or Golgi-Endoplasmic-Reticulum-Lysosome-GERL) and in residual bodies of cultured neurons and in vivo, while free HRP is found only in residual bodies. We conclude that 1) various ligands with affinities to plasma membrane moieties are more sensitive, and probably more reliable, markers of "membrane" flow than free HRP, and 2) the pathway involved in the adsorptive endocytosis of ligands is different from the pathway of fluid phase uptake of HRP. These findings are consistent with the view that, in addition to its established role in the centrifugal traffic of various moieties, the neuronal Golgi apparatus is also involved in a centripetal vesicular membrane traffic. We spectulate that the neuronal Golgi apparatus, and probably the Golgi apparatus of other cells, is at the "crossroads" of a vesicular membrane traffic, and may thus exert significant controls on biologic membrane equilibria.