Hypoxia-stimulated membrane trafficking requires T-plastin

Abstract

Traffic between the plasma membrane and the endomembrane compartments is an essential feature of eukaryotic cells. The secretory pathway sends cargoes from biosynthetic compartments to the plasma membrane. This is counterbalanced by a retrograde endocytic route and is essential for cell homoeostasis. Cells need to adapt rapidly to environmental challenges such as the reduction of pO2 which, however, has not been analysed in relation to membrane trafficking in detail. Therefore, we determined changes in the plasma membrane trafficking in normoxia, hypoxia, and after reoxygenation.