ON THE COVER: The retromer complex is responsible for retrograde transport, which is coordinated with anterograde transport in the secretory pathway. Arabidopsis thaliana has three genes (VPS35a, VPS35b and VPS35c) that are homologous to yeast VPS35p, a retromer component. In this issue, Yamazaki et al. (pp. 142-156) demonstrate that Arabidopsis VPS35 is involved in sorting proteins to protein storage vacuoles in seeds, possibly by recycling VSR (vacuolar sorting receptor) from PVCs to Golgi complex, and is also involved in plant growth and senescence in vegetative organs. The cover photos show immunoelectron micrographs of seeds of vps35 mutant (upper panels) and of wild type (lower panels). vps35 mutant mis-sorts storage proteins by secreting them out of the seed cells, while wild type accumulates them in protein storage vacuoles. The photos of plants and seeds in siliques show early leaf senescence and a defect of embryogenesis of vps35 mutant.
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