Felix Hoppe-Seyler Lecture 1996. Mechanisms of intracellular protein transport.

Discovery of the protein machinery of vesicle transport has followed the reconstitution of transport in a cell-free system, and established general mechanisms that underlie a broad variety of physiological processes, including cell surface growth, the biogenesis of distinct intracellular organelles, endocytosis, and the controlled release of hormones and neurotransmitters. Transport vesicles are formed as coat proteins assemble on membranes, are targetted by SNARE proteins, and fuse using a general mechanism involving SNAP proteins and the ATPase NSF.