Clatherin-mediated endocytosis (CME) is one of the major ways that substances are taken up by cells. This pathway is also exploited by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria and is even thought to play a role in cancer and mental conditions such as schizophrenia. Despite its involvement in many key aspects of cell biology and diseases, relatively little is known about the individual steps in the CME pathway.
This review from Vyas Ramanan and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania shows how experimental data and theoretical models can come together to elucidate events during endocytosis. Modelling has already been used to suggest the dynamics underlying various processes, including the nucleation of clatherin-coated pits at the cell membrane and how the clatherin coat is kept stable during vesicle formation. These models can then be used as a basis for experiments. The authors also give examples of when modelling can be used to suggest the reasons for observations made using techniques such as total internal reflected fluorescence microscopy.
This paper gives a detailed look into the progress being made in this field and the challenges which still face researchers today. It’s free to download here for the next four weeks, so why not take advantage and download it today.
Systems biology and physical biology of clathrin-mediated endocytosis
Vyas Ramanan, Neeraj J. Agrawal, Jin Liu, Sean Engles, Randall Toy and Ravi Radhakrishnan
Integr. Biol., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1IB00036E, Review
I am especially excited to see this paper in print because it had a very substantial contribution from three undergraduate students (all coauthors) from the University of Pennsylvania.
(Report comment)