Regulation of the budding of retrograde transport vesicles in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Membrane and protein transport are essential processes in the cell. Proteins have to be delivered to the correct cellular target compartment to fulfill their function. Most of the cellular organelles are surrounded by membranes in order to prevent uncontrolled mixing of their content with the cytoplasm. Communication between the organelles is mediated by vesicles that travel between different compartments. We investigate the regulation of membrane and protein traffic in different organisms. In the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we focus on the life cycle of a transport vesicle that is formed at the Golgi apparatus destined for the endoplasmic reticulum. In contrast, in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we study membrane delivery into the division plane during cytokinesis. Cytokinesis is the last step in cell division: After DNA has been equally duplicated and distributed onto two poles, new membrane is inserted in between the poles at the plasma membrane which divides the cellular content, resulting in two cells.