Research article: Effects of brefeldin A (BFA) in Chara australis. In untreated internodal cells (left side), clathrin coats (red) are involved in endocytosis via coated vesicles (cv) and in vesicle (v) detachment from the trans-Golgi network (TGN). Transport of H⁺ (and OH⁻) across the plasma membrane (PM) and cell wall (CW) creates alternating acid and alkaline regions along the cell surface. Injury of the cell induces the deposition of either fibrillar wound walls (fWW) where exocytosis is linked with clathrin-dependent endocytosis, or the secretion of amorphous wound walls (aWW) where exocytosis is independent of endocytosis. In the presence of BFA (right side), clathrin coats disappear from PM and TGN, endocytosis and detachment of TGN-derived vesicles are inhibited. Golgi bodies and TGN agglomerate in BFA compartments and the pH along the cell surface becomes homogenous. Injury causes the secretion of amorphous wound walls but clathrin-dependent deposition of fibrillar wound walls is inhibited. Only a part of the cell and the most important organelles and structures related to this work are drawn; chloroplasts, charasomes and central vacuole are not depicted.

Research article: We provide a further potentiation of the well-established model system planarians. Specifically, we demonstrated the ability of 5-fluorouracil (5FU) to produce stem cell-less organisms and identified a sub-population of 5FU transiently resistant stem cells (TRSC), giving insight into the complex heterogeneity of planarian neoblasts. In conclusion, we propose 5FU-treated planarians as a valid alternative to X-ray to study stem cell heterogeneity and tissue aging.

Research Article: Glucose starvation in yeast causes endocytosis of many cell surface proteins and their subsequent delivery to the yeast lysosome or vacuole. Here, we show that clathrin adaptors at the TGN are required for this response. Despite a highly transient disassociation of clathrin adaptors from the TGN, endocytosed cargo traffics to the TGN where the clathrin adaptor Gga2 mediates traffic towards the lysosome, while the clathrin adaptor protein complex AP-1 plays a minor role potentially in retaining cargo in the TGN.