Intracellular trafficking.

Studies in C. elegans have begun to reveal new components and new mechanisms associated with intracellular membrane traffic in a variety of cell types. The worm benefits from many of the advantages of yeast as a genetically tractable organism for these kinds of studies while offering the unique opportunity to probe how these pathways have been extended and modified in the context of a multicellular animal undergoing development to produce diverse cell types such as muscles, nerves, and polarized epithelia. This review summarizes recent work elucidating endocytic pathways, primarily in the worm germ line and coelomocytes, and also touches on diverse studies of secretion, especially in ectodermal cells of epithelial character.