ERGIC

This compartment mediates transport between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi complex, facilitating the sorting of cargo.

[2] It is also referred to as the vesicular-tubular cluster (VTC) or, originally, tubulo-vesicular compartment.

In mammalian organisms, COPII vesicles that have budded from exit sites in the endoplasmic reticulum lose their coats and fuse to form the vesicular-tubular cluster (VTC).

Retrieval (or retrograde) transport in COPI vesicles returns many of the lost ER resident proteins back to the endoplasmic reticulum.

Forward (or anterograde) transport moves the VTC contents to the cis-Golgi network, the receiving face of the Golgi complex.