A research team has revealed the molecular steps that led to the emergence of this plant-specific vacuolar transport system. Their work shows that the acquisition of this pathway was driven by the ...

Photosynthesis -- mainly carried out by plants -- is based on a remarkably efficient energy conversion process. To generate chemical energy, sunlight must first be captured and transported further.

This illustration shows how the membrane trafficking protein VAMP72 gradually changed during plant evolution to give rise to VAMP727, which functions in transporting storage proteins to vacuoles. The ...