XVI International Botanical Congess

We have investigated targeting of proteins to, and the dynamics of the Golgi apparatus in leaves of Nicotiana sp.and Arabidopsis using the green fluorescent protein (GFP). GFP was spliced to the trans-membrane domain of a rat sialyl transferase(STtmd-GFP) and to the aERD2 protein. The protein STtmd-GFP was located in numerous motile fluorescent bodies in the cytoplasm. Immunogold labelling with an anti-GFP serum confirmed these to be Golgi stacks. Confocal imaging of aERD2-GFP expression also located fluorescent bodies and at a low intensity a cortical network of ER tubules. In these cells the Golgi bodies could be seen to be moving over the surface of the ER tubules. Staining of epidermal cells showed the ER and Golgi bodies associated with an actin network.