Editor's Summary

23 February 2006

Debut of the eisosome

Endocytosis is the process by which a cell's plasma membrane encircles a substance and then pinches off an intracellular vesicle in which to trap and transport the substance. It facilitates the cellular uptake of nutrients and macromolecules, and recycles plasma membrane components. Until now no mechanism to specify where in the cell's membrane endocytosis will occur had been identified: it remained possible that sites of endocytosis might be chosen at random. But now a protein assembly to do the job has been identified in yeast. The complex, named the eisosome (for portal body), forms immobile structures at the cell cortex that co-localize with sites of endocytosis.

Letter: Eisosomes mark static sites of endocytosis

Tobias C. Walther, Jason H. Brickner, Pablo S. Aguilar, Sebastián Bernales, Carlos Pantoja and Peter Walter

doi:10.1038/nature04472

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (488K) | Supplementary information