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The Golgi apparatus found in so-called eukaryotic cells acts like Amazon.com, namely accepting delivery of newly synthesized proteins, packaging them, and sending them out.
However, in comparison to Amazon.com the Golgi apparatus uses immensely more advanced packaging materials made of a multitude of lipids.
The various lipids form membranes in the shape of vesicles.
Depending on lipid type specific goods are packaged inside the vesicles, specific
locations in the cell receive the packages, content is emptied there and packages are retrieved.
To achieve the series of steps just outlined, lipids as the main actors need to be coordinated.
One way is to recognize lipids forming vesicle membranes and to modify them to be readied for a subsequent step, for example going from release step to retrieval step.
For this purpose eukaryotic cells engage a special class of proteins,
named kinases, that can recognize membrane lipids and phosphorylate them, adding a so-called phosphate group.
As reported recently,
a team of experimental and computational scientists determined the atomic structure of a key member in the kinase family,
phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase (PI4K).
The scientists discovered not only the structure, but also how PI4K captures and phosphorylates a particular type of lipid molecule,
thereby changing a vesicular membrane and turning on the next step in the cellular package delivery system.
The discoveries, made possible through the software
NAMD and VMD,
are expected to have an impact on the design of novel drugs that suppress cancer cell growth. More on our kinase website.