Talk:Secretory pathway

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Changed rating to "high" as this is high school/SAT biology content. The article could be improved by adding material from secretion (and in turn improving that article by replacing some of the cellular details with more general information). - tameeria 22:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

There are a number of things I don't like about the phrase, "A secretory pathway is a term used to describe different methods that cells use...".

If a secretory pathway is a kind of metabolic pathway, for which Wikipedia already has an entry, then both articles would benefit from linking the concepts. A secretory pathway, I suspect, is a metabolic pathway which ends in secretion, that is, exocytosis. Moreover, "secretion" (or "expression") ought to appear among the varieties of metabolic pathways.

As for my objections, they are (1) wrongful application of the indefinite article, (2) calling attention to the fact that the term is a term, (3) saying what it is used for rather than what it means, (4) introducing "to describe" as its purpose, (5) confusion of number in using plural "methods" to refer to singular "pathway", (6) trivial injection of "different", and (7) implying that secretory pathways are among the "methods that cells use" to achieve their goals.

Cells don't have free will; like the rest of us, they just do what they're told, and eventually they pop, yet another secretory pathway. It's all rather sad, come to think of it.

D021317c 11:09, 13 December 2005 (UTC)


I am proposing a a general outline for this page...

  • Intro
  • General Regulation (Constitutive vs. Regulated)
  • Cotranslation Translocation (how the proteins get in the ER)
  • ER to cis-Golgi (and retrograde movement)
  • Cisternal progression
  • Trans-golgi to endosomes
  • Trnas-golgi to lysosomes
  • Trans-golgi to plasma membrane

At each point we should describe what type of regulation is used. How proteins are selected for transportation. Mechanics of budding and fusion (or something analogous, if applicable). Modifications that take place in each compartment (if any). I know it's a lot of stuff, but secretion is a complicated and important process. I will start from the beginning. feel free to contribute. (Or add/subtract from this outline)


Actually, the endosomes and lysosomes probably don't need to be included on this page. They might fit better on a page on endocytosis. Stable attractor 03:59, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I moved the following text from the see also section of the page: "translocon, not transcolon The translocon is not a "hole," but a molecular space through which proteins can move into the endoplasmic reticulum. In addition, the translocon is thought to change its conformation (mechanism not yet elucidated) to allow those proteins that are structurally able to become membrane components to be laterally moved into the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum." Alberrosidus 08:24, 22 March 2007 (UTC)