The realization that the meticulous organization of cellular organelles is not required for the reconstitution of select intracellular traffic steps has revolutionized cell biology. It transformed the discipline from a morphological one into a molecular one. It helped in defining the activities of COPII and COPI vesicle coats in secretion. The work established the principles of the vesicular traffic model as envisioned by George Palade 50 years ago. However, in recent years, numerous advances in cellular and imaging technologies afforded an unprecedented molecular resolution that sheds new light on COPII activities and biosynthetic traffic between the ER and the Golgi. In the following review, I summarize this new information and attempt to provide a unified physical-molecular-morphological description of this traffic step. This information expands on the simplistic principles of vesicular traffic and provides novel frameworks to examine and explain physiological secretion.
COAT-MEDIATED INTRACELLULAR TRAFFIC: CHALLENGING THE DOGMAIntracellular traffic is carried by vesicles-this dogma, pioneered by the work of George Palade, has guided the field for the past 50 years (Palade, 1975). Vesicular traffic has been documented across species throughout evolution and in the different cellular sorting sites during endo-and exocytosis (Mellman and Emr, 2013;Traub and Bonifacino, 2013). Vesicles bud from donor membranes, travel in space, tether, and fuse with acceptor membranes to deliver cargoes (Figure 1). Vesicles are formed by the activity of coats, cytosolic protein complexes that are recruited to donor membranes to bud vesicles. Recruitment is mediated by small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) (secretion) or through activation by facilitators that drive conformational change (internalization; Kirchhausen et al., 2014;Miller and Schekman, 2013). Once recruited, coats interact with membranes and cargoes. Through such interactions, the coats sort and collect cargoes, tethers, and fusion machinery into membrane domains that are molded into buds and vesicles with help from coat polymerization. Once vesicles bud and uncoat, tether and fusion activities will deliver cargo to the acceptor membrane. This dogma was established from robust combinations of data using genetic, cellular, and biochemical approaches in cells and cell-free reconstitution systems (Kirchhausen et al., 2014;Miller and Schekman, 2013). Yet recent work focusing on one of the key sorting sites in cells at ER exit sites that were monitored in an unprecedented resolution suggest otherwise (Shomron et al., 2021;Weigel et al., 2021). Instead of vesicles, connectivity between donor and acceptor membranes may drive traffic (Figure 1C), and ER exit site components, including TANGO1, direct such connectivity (Raote et al., 2021; Figure 2). Instead of coat-mediated vesicle formation, coat-assisted filters are proposed, sorting cargoes at an ER exit site gate. We may even have two coats, not one, contributing to the formation of one single tubular transport carri...