Endosomes articles from across Nature Portfolio

The extracellular vesicle (EV) surface corona is emerging as a crucial mediator of EV functions. This Comment discusses the roles and biogenesis of the EV corona, as well as the importance of controls to determine whether a biological effect is attributable to the internal EV cargo or to the corona associated with the EV exofacial surface.

The class II phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks) serve important roles in diverse cellular processes. The lab of Volker Haucke has now determined high-resolution structures of mouse PI3KC2α in both active and inactive conformations, elucidating the autoregulatory mechanism of class II PI3K activation.

In this issue of Nature Cell Biology, Mercier et al. show that acute changes in membrane tension may be a physiological trigger for ESCRT assembly, which drives membrane scission, luminal vesicle budding, and a wide array of other membrane remodelling events throughout the cell.

Endosomes are central stations for converging proteins from biosynthetic pathways and endocytic routes. Many endosomal proteins are sorted to the plasma membrane or the Golgi despite the lysosome being the primary endosomal fate. SNX5 and SNX6 are now revealed to decode a conserved bipartite signal to mediate protein sorting to the Golgi or the plasma membrane.

Membrane trafficking specificity between distinct compartments ensures that cargo proteins and lipids are delivered to their target organelle. However, accurate recognition of cargo carriers by tethering factors on target membranes is poorly understood. TBC1D23 is now identified as an adaptor that links endosome-derived vesicles with golgins at the trans-Golgi.

Recycling from endosomes to the plasma membrane is an important step in cell homeostasis. The retromer/SNX27/WASH complex recycles numerous receptors, but key ones are still unaccounted for. Now a related conserved heterotrimer, called retriever, has been identified that, together with SNX17, the CCC complex and WASH, mediates the recycling of α₅β₁ integrins.