Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Membrane trafficking

Coat control by curvature

Nature volume 426, pages 507–508 (2003)Cite this article

The main transport vehicles inside cells are spherical vesicles that form when patches of membrane curve into buds and then pinch off. 'Coat' proteins both control, and are controlled by, this membrane curvature.

Many cells use small, membrane-bounded carriers — vesicles — to release and take up molecules and to move proteins between membrane-clad intracellular compartments. When and where a carrier forms within the cell, and what it contains, depends on a remarkable system of protein-based 'coats'1,2. Components of these coats are recruited individually to membranes, where they assemble into a lattice. This allows cargo proteins to be concentrated into the patch defined by the lattice, and the patch to deform into a bud that pinches off as a vesicle. For this system to work, the assembly and disassembly of the coats must be carefully controlled. Coat components can self-associate into lattices, but unless the lattices are kept from disassembling they will never grow large enough to deform the membrane or pinch off vesicles. However, they must also be able to dissociate quickly after a vesicle has pinched off, so that fusion of the vesicle with its target membrane is not inhibited. How do cells control these events?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Similarities in the dynamics of coats and filaments.

References

  1. Rothman, J. E & Wieland, F. T. Science 272, 227–234 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Schekman, R. & Orci, L. Science 271, 1526–1533 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bigay, J., Gounon, P., Robineau, S. & Antonny, B. Nature 426, 563–566 (2003).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Majoul, I., Straub, M., Hell, S. W., Duden, R. & Soling, H. D. Dev. Cell 1, 139–153 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Goldberg, J. Cell 96, 893–902 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Tanigawa, G. et al. J. Cell Biol. 123, 1365–1371 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Antonny, B., Huber, I., Paris, S., Chabre, M. & Cassel, D. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 30848–30851 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Presley, J. F. et al. Nature 417, 187–193 (2002).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Yang, J. S. et al. J. Cell Biol. 159, 69–78 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Weiss, M. & Nilsson, T. Traffic 4, 65–73 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Desai, A. & Mitchison, T. J. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 13, 83–117 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Baumgart, T., Hess, S. T. & Webb, W. W. Nature 425, 821–824 (2003).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20892, Maryland, USA

    Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz & Wei Liu

Authors
  1. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wei Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lippincott-Schwartz, J., Liu, W. Coat control by curvature. Nature 426, 507–508 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/426507a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/426507a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing