Question

Describe the process of endosomal maturation from the sorting endosome to the lysosomes.

Answer 1

Being deeply connected to signalling, cell dynamics, growth, regulation, and defence, endocytic processes are linked to almost all aspects of cell life and disease. In this review, we focus on endosomes in the classical endocytic pathway, and on the programme of changes that lead to the formation and maturation of late endosomes/multivesicular bodies. The maturation programme entails a dramatic transformation of these dynamic organelles disconnecting them functionally and spatially from early endosomes and preparing them for their unidirectional role as a feeder pathway to lysosomes.n a basic, ‘stripped-down' representation, the classical endocytic pathway has only a few elements. The elements include a recycling circuit for plasma membrane components and their ligands, a degradative system for digestion of macromolecules, and a connecting, unidirectional feeder pathway for transport of fluid and selected membrane components from the recycling circuit to the degradative system.The feeder function is mediated by Feeder Pathway.Feeder Pathway also function as a system for mediating transport of lysosomal components from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to lysosomes. This allows maintenance, diversification, and expansion of the recycling and degradative systems. Finally, the cytosol must be included among the essential elements, because it provides a spectrum of transiently associated, peripheral membrane components that support, regulate, and define the pathway