Peripheral membrane component of the cis-Golgi stack that acts as a membrane skeleton that maintains the structure of the Golgi apparatus, and as a vesicle thether that facilitates vesicle fusion to the Golgi membrane (Probable) . Required for normal protein transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus and the cell membrane (By similarity). Together with p115/USO1 and STX5, involved in vesicle tethering and fusion at the cis-Golgi membrane to maintain the stacked and inter-connected structure of the Golgi apparatus. Plays a central role in mitotic Golgi disassembly: phosphorylation at Ser-37 by CDK1 at the onset of mitosis inhibits the interaction with p115/USO1, preventing tethering of COPI vesicles and thereby inhibiting transport through the Golgi apparatus during mitosis (By similarity). Also plays a key role in spindle pole assembly and centrosome organization . Promotes the mitotic spindle pole assembly by activating the spindle assembly factor TPX2 to nucleate microtubules around the Golgi and capture them to couple mitotic membranes to the spindle: upon phosphorylation at the onset of mitosis, GOLGA2 interacts with importin-alpha via the nuclear localization signal region, leading to recruit importin-alpha to the Golgi membranes and liberate the spindle assembly factor TPX2 from importin-alpha. TPX2 then activates AURKA kinase and stimulates local microtubule nucleation. Upon filament assembly, nascent microtubules are further captured by GOLGA2, thus linking Golgi membranes to the spindle (, ). Regulates the meiotic spindle pole assembly, probably via the same mechanism (By similarity). Also regulates the centrosome organization (, ). Also required for the Golgi ribbon formation and glycosylation of membrane and secretory proteins (, ).
Subcellular locations: Golgi apparatus, Cis-Golgi network membrane, Endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi intermediate compartment membrane, Cytoplasm, Cytoskeleton, Spindle pole
Associates with the mitotic spindle during mitosis .