Edited by
B. Storrie, Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Viginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Petersburg, VA, USA
R.F. Murphy, Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Description
The intent in initiating this volume was to bring together a series of essays which would define our present understanding of the endosome
and lysosome and their interrelationship. The editors deliberately encouraged the contributors to be speculative; to strive to put order
to the "real" world of incomplete and sometimes conflicting data. Seeing science from the laboratory bench can often be like viewing
an impressionistic painting from up close; a series of paint dabs with no apparent order. The contributors to this volume were asked
to step back and leave the reader with a sense of the whole as well as the detail. To the extent that this has happened, the credit should
go to the individual authors.
Our understanding of endosomes and lysosomes has undergone a molecular revolution over the last decade.
Hence, we now know much about the molecular features required for internalization of an endocytic receptor, or the function of mannose
6-phosphate receptors in the transport of lysosomal enzymes. We can trace and follow the flow of molecules. In this volume current molecular
knowledge concerning the function and relationship of endosomes and lysosomes is presented. Because of this vast increase in knowledge
of molecules, we have realized that endosomes in particular are very ephemeral organelles. In fact, endosomes may well not be discrete
entities but rather continuously changing and evolving in their molecular composition. The dynamic nature of the relationship between
endosomes and lysosomes is the unifying focus of the genetic, biochemical, microscopic, and molecular biological approaches described
in the chapters which follow.
Included in series
Advances in Cellular and Molecular Biology of Membranes and Organelles
