Cell polarity is fundamental for biological activity across many varied cell types within different animal species. Intracellular trafficking regulates the differential distribution of proteins that is fundamental to establishing cell polarity, but how cell polarity regulators exert their effects on trafficking machinery is largely unknown. Now, on p. 2796, David Bilder and colleagues identify a specific and unexpected role for Scribble, a conserved core polarity protein, in controlling cargo sorting during intracellular trafficking in several Drosophila epithelial tissues. The authors show that Scribble mutants phenocopy endocytic internalization mutants but that they themselves are not defective in endolysosomal trafficking. Instead, Scribble controls cargo sorting within the retromer pathway, a system used to recycle proteins from endosomes to the trans-Golgi network. Depletion of the Scribble module affects the localisation of canonical retromer-dependent cargo, such as Wntless and Crumbs, but does not affect cargos that are retromer independent. This work brings a new aspect to the interplay between membrane traffic and polarity, and will help to decipher how these two essential pathways interact to establish and maintain epithelial polarity.
Scribble gets done for intracellular trafficking
Scribble gets done for intracellular trafficking. Development 15 July 2014; 141 (14): e1404. doi:
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