Golgin tethers define subpopulations of COPI vesicles.

Coiled-coil proteins of the golgin family have been implicated in intra-Golgi transport through tethering coat protein complex I (COPI) vesicles. The p115-golgin tether is the best studied, and here we characterize the golgin-84-CASP tether. The vesicles bound by this tether were strikingly different from those bound by the p115-golgin tether in that they lacked members of the p24 family of putative cargo receptors and contained enzymes instead of anterograde cargo. Microinjected golgin-84 or CASP also inhibited Golgi-enzyme transport to the endoplasmic reticulum, further implicating this tether in retrograde transport. These and other golgins may modulate the flow patterns within the Golgi stack.