Twenty years of Traffic.

Abstract

Traffic was launched 20 years ago by Frances Brodsky, Mark Marsh, Sandy Schmid and Thomas Kreis with the goal of creating a journal for scientists run by scientists. Frances and Mark previously documented the history of Traffic through its first 10 years.1 Now, we are celebrating the end of our second decade and beginning of the third. A key feature of the journal has been the shared commitment of all past and current editors to work together to produce a journal that serves the community and maintains a rapid and constructive review process. Over the years, Sandy, Frances and Mark have stepped down as editors, and Trina Schroer, Tom Stevens, Gillian Griffiths, Gerrit van Meer, Mickey Marks, Sharon Tooze and Rob Parton have, in turn, stepped in. They were joined by an impressive panel of associate editors (Bruno Goud, Chris Hawes, Scott Emr, Ted Hackstadt, Carolyn Machamer, Dominique Soldati-Favre, Murray Stewart, Mark von Zastrow, Sergio Grinstein, Alexander Sorkin, Christian Ungermann, Anita Corbett and Elizabeth Miller). All of the present and past editors and associate editors have contributed significant amounts of time and talent, each has upheld the founding principles of Traffic, and each has left their mark on the character of the journal. Throughout, the journal has been sustained by a fantastic Managing Editor, Lisa Hannan, who on many occasions has held us all to task and ensured timely publication of each issue of the journal. We are also indebted to all of our referees without whom Traffic would not be what it has become. Traffic is now a mainstay of the international community of cell biologists interested in the molecular control of intracellular traffic and of cellular organization and how these contribute to physiological responses. We thank all of our colleagues for your continued trust in us to publish your important research findings and for supporting Traffic. The last 20 years have witnessed remarkable advances in our understanding of the molecular regulation of intracellular membrane trafficking, particularly within the endomembrane system. Exploiting technological advances in microscopy, genetics, computational biology, and innovative cell culture, plant and animal models, we have extended the pioneering work of Nobel laureates Palade, Claude, De Duve, Blobel, Rothman, Schekman, Südhof and Ohsumi to uncover detailed molecular mechanisms underlying secretory traffic, endocytosis, organelle biogenesis, the transfer of material between organelles, membrane motility, cell stress responses and the behaviors of intracellular pathogens. In turn, these studies have led to the discovery of new phenomena that were unimaginable 20 years ago, including the roles of organelle: organelle contacts in regulating intracellular dynamics, the interplay between membrane traffic and metabolism, and the roles of phosphoinositides and other phospholipids in shaping membrane dynamics. Many of these mechanisms are altered in unique ways in specialized cell types to effect specific physiological responses, such as immune responses or insulin-responsive glucose uptake, and by pathogens to promote their entry into, survival within and release from host cells. Many of these advances have been chronicled in Traffic. We have revisited some of the most influential research papers and reviews from the past 20 years in two special anniversary issues online. This has been a challenging task as there are so many wonderful contributions from our community. As anniversaries are not just about looking back, some of the leaders in our field have written commentaries for the special issue to celebrate both the advances in cell biology that have been published in Traffic over the past 20 years and the advances to come. We remain committed to the principle of scientist editors handling submissions by scientists; to fast, fair and constructive review; and to the responsible publishing practices as outlined by DORA. We very much look forward to the next decade of transformative traffic!