Seibutsu Butsuri

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Recent progress in the field of study of intracellular traffic, especially of endocytotic process, has been surveyed, with special reference to the role and function of acidic compartments and their proton pumps.
Intracellular acidic pockets are now recognized to be ubiquitous in the vacuolar system of eukaryotic cells where endocytotic and exocytotic processes perform essential cellular functions. The functions of low pH in endocytosis are aummarized as 1) to dissociate receptor-ligand (or its equivalence) interactions to make accumulation of ligands within cells possible, and 2) to provide prerequisite conditions for membrane fusion between lysosomes and endosomes.
In this review article, another important feature of the pH and the proton pump dependent process is stressed: that is, the proton pump seems to work as a condensing device within cells, thus contributing membrane recycling process by making preparation of neccessary mem branes possible, The proton pump will thus function to create polarity in intracellular traffic using energy.

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