Journal of Physiology Science

Abstract. The endocytic itineraries of lipid raft markers, such as glycosyl phosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins and glycosphingolipids, are in-completely understood. Here we show that different GPI-anchored proteins have different intracellular distributions; some (such as the folate receptor) accumulate in transferrin-containing compartments, others(such as CD59 and GPI-linked green ?uorescent protein [GFP]) accumulate in the Golgi apparatus. Selective photobleaching shows that the Golgi pool of bothGPI-GFP and CD59-GFP constantly and rapidly ex-changes with the pool of these proteins found on the plasma membrane (PM). We visualized intermediates carrying GPI-GFP from the Golgi apparatus to the PMand separate structures delivering GPI-GFP to the Golgi apparatus.