Signaling at the Golgi: sensing and controlling the membrane fluxes.

Over the past few decades, it has emerged that the Golgi (and other secretory stations) is host to a variety of signaling molecules and can act as a signaling hub that receives, emits and elaborates signals. This endomembrane-based signaling apparatus appears to have more than one purpose. Its most fundamental function appears to be the auto-regulation of the biosynthetic apparatus to maintain and/or optimize its own activities and to coordinate such activities with those of other cellular modules.(1) This is achieved by dedicated control devices that provide stability, robustness, precision, sensitivity and complexity to cellular behaviors.