Proper functioning of endocrine cells is crucial for organismal homeostasis. The underlying mechanisms that fine-tune the amount, and the timing of hormone secretion are not clear. JIP1 / MAPK8IP1 (JNK interacting protein 1) is a scaffold protein that mediates cellular stress response, and is highly expressed in endocrine cells, including insulin secreting b-cells in pancreas islets. However, the role of JIP1 in b-cells is unclear. This study demonstrates that b-cell specific Jip1 ablation results in decreased glucose-induced insulin secretion, without a change in Insulin1 and Insulin2 gene expression. Inhibition of both JIP1-kinesin interaction, and JIP1-JNK interaction by genetic mutations also resulted in decreased insulin secretion, suggesting that JIP1 may mediate insulin vesicle trafficking through interacting with kinesin and JNK. Autophagy is a cellular recycling mechanism and implicated in the b-cell function. Both JIP1 and JNK are proposed to regulate autophagy pathway. However, it is unclear whether JNK plays a role in the promotion or suppression of autophagy. The findings of this study show that JNK is not essential for autophagy induction, but can regulate autophagy in a cell and context specific manner. The results in this thesis implies a mechanism that link cellular trafficking and stress signaling pathways in the regulated hormone secretion. In addition to the known role of JIP1 in metabolism and insulin resistance, this finding may also be relevant to endocrine pathologies.