The ESCRT machinery

SnapShot: The ESCRT Machinery

The ESCRT machinery

Do caveolae regulate signaling pathways? The broad spectrum of signaling pathways sensitive to caveolae or caveolins is remarkable, with impacts on gene expression, cell proliferation, anchorage dependence of cell growth, directional cell migration, extracellular matrix remodeling, and so on. Since caveolins are also found outside of caveolae, some of the functions assigned to caveolin may not ...

Membrane manipulations by the ESCRT machinery

The endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRTs) collectively comprise a machinery that was first known for its function in the degradation of transmembrane proteins in the endocytic pathway of eukaryotic cells. Since their discovery, however, ESCRTs have been recognized as playing important roles at the plasma membrane, which appears to be the original site of function for the E...

The ESCRT machinery at a glance.

This article is part of a Minifocus on the ESCRT machinery. For further reading, please see related articles: ‘No strings attached: the ESCRT machinery in viral budding and cytokinesis’ by Bethan McDonald and Juan Martin-Serrano (J. Cell Sci. 122, 2167-2177) and ‘How do ESCRT proteins control autophagy?’ by Tor Erik Rusten and Harald Stenmark (J. Cell Sci. 122, 2179-2183). The endosomal sorting...

The ESCRT machinery: new roles at new holes

The ESCRT machinery drives a diverse collection of membrane remodeling events, including multivesicular body biogenesis, release of enveloped retroviruses and both reformation of the nuclear envelope and cytokinetic abscission during mitotic exit. These events share the requirement for a topologically equivalent membrane remodeling for their completion and the cells deployment of the ESCRT mach...