Golgi

The Golgi apparatus modifies, sorts and packages proteins to be sent to their final destinations, whether that's within or outside of the cell.

Scientists have long studied membrane-bound compartments, called organelles, in plant cells, such as the Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and most significantly, the nucleus, where DNA gets copied and transcribed into RNA.

Researchers report February 29 in the journal Cell Reports that the Golgi ribbon, an organelle structure previously thought to be exclusive to vertebrates, is also present in animal taxa, including mollusks, earthworms, and sea urchins.

Sometimes described as appearing like a stack of deflated balloons or some dropped lasagna, the organelle called the Golgi body is composed of a series of cup-shaped membrane-covered sacs.

The team found indirect evidence of cytoskeletons, as well as platy structures that suggest the presence of internal vesicles in which the plates were formed -- perhaps ancestral to Golgi bodies, present in modern eukaryotic cells.