Regulation of cargo export and sorting at the trans-Golgi network

The sorting and distribution to different final destinations of roughly a third of the membrane and secreted proteins occurs at the level of the trans-Golgi network (TGN). This TGN mission involves efficient mechanisms of cargo recognition and activation of specific signalling pathways. This is important because protein localization is strictly connected with function, and many aberrant phenotypes may occur when a protein is missorted to the wrong cellular compartment. In this review, we briefly summarize the principal players known to be involved in TGN functions, highlighting the importance of regulatory signalling pathways and also the pathological outcomes of aberrant sorting and export events from the TGN compartment.