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Getting active: protein sorting in endocytic recycling

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 13, pages 323–328 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Endocytic recycling returns proteins to the plasma membrane in many physiological contexts. Studies of these events have helped to elucidate fundamental mechanisms that underlie recycling. Recycling was for some time considered to be the exception to a general mechanism of active cargo sorting in multiple intracellular pathways. In recent years, studies have begun to reconcile this seeming disparity and also suggest explanations for why early recycling studies did not detect active sorting. Further articulation of this emerging trend has far-reaching implications for a deeper understanding of many physiological and pathological events that require recycling.

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Figure 1: Cargo can be actively recycled during endocytosis.
Figure 2: Potential mechanisms of active sorting.

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Acknowledgements

The authors apologize to colleagues for not citing a greater number of studies on endocytic recycling owing to the focused nature of this Opinion article. Work in the Hsu laboratory on endocytic recycling is supported by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R01GM073016).

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  1. Ming Bai and Jian Li are at the Division of Rheumatology, and Department of Medicine, Victor W. Hsu, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachsuetts 02115 USA.,

    Victor W. Hsu, Ming Bai & Jian Li

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Hsu, V., Bai, M. & Li, J. Getting active: protein sorting in endocytic recycling. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13, 323–328 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3332

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