| The establishment and maintenance of cell polarity during development is an active process that requires specific protein sorting and targeting to apical and basolateral regions of the cell. Our lab has identified an apical early endosomal marker, endotubin, in developing rat intestine, which we have used to label specialized apical endosomal tubules, and to probe for components of the apical sorting machinery. Studies with endotubin have implicated the small GTPase Rab14 as part of the sorting machinery for apical targeting. The current work pursues further study of the interaction between Rab14 and endotubin, as well as the role for Rab14 in the establishment of cell asymmetry. Interestingly, even nonpolarized cells may utilize polarized trafficking components for proper sorting and dynamics of endotubin. |
