Endosome protein sorting: motifs and machinery

The steady-state localisation of membrane proteins in the endocytic system is the result of many sorting events that occur at various points throughout the endosomal pathway. A protein that has been endocytosed from the plasma membrane or sorted at the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and transported to an endosome will ultimately be delivered to one of three destinations: the plasma membrane, the TGN or the lysosome. Where a membrane protein is trafficked to depends on the interactions between sorting motifs present in the membrane protein and the machinery that can decode these motifs. Much of the protein machinery that recognises sorting motifs is conserved from yeast to man, and in this review I will discuss this machinery and the motifs that govern endosomal protein sorting.