SCAMP, VSR, and plant endocytosis

Abstract

In plants, secretory carrier membrane proteins (SCAMPs) are integral membrane proteins localized to plasma membrane (PM) and trans-Golgi network (TGN)/early endosome, whereas vacuolar sorting receptors (VSRs) are type I integral membrane proteins localized to TGN and prevacuolar compartment (PVC)/late endosome in plant cells. Recent studies demonstrated that SCAMPs and VSRs exhibited distinct patterns of distribution in growing pollen tube and both proteins are found to be essential for pollen tube growth. Interestingly, similar to SCAMPs, VSRs are also found to locate in PM in pollen tube, indicating a possible role in endocytosis. This chapter summarizes the recent findings on plant SCAMPs and VSRs in respect to their possible roles in endocytic trafficking within plant cells.