Cdc42 and Cellular Polarity: Emercing Roles at the Golgi

Cdc42 belongs to the Rho family of small GTPases and plays key roles in cellular events of polarity. This role of Cdc42 has typically been attributed to its function at the plasma membrane. However, Cdc42 also exists at the Golgi complex. Here we summarize major insights that have been gathered in studying the Golgi pool of Cdc42 and propose that Golgi-localized Cdc42 enables the cell to diversify the function of Cdc42, which in some cases represents new roles and in other cases acts to complement the established roles of Cdc42 at the plasma membrane. Studies on how Cdc42 acts at the Golgi also suggest key questions to address in the future.