The activity of many signaling receptors is regulated by their endocytosis via clathrin-coated pits (CCPs). For G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), recruitment of the adaptor protein arrestin to activated receptors is thought to be sufficient to drive GPCR clustering in CCPs and subsequent endocytosis. We have identified an unprecedented role for the ubiquitin-like protein PLIC-2 as a negative...

The biomimetic nanovaccines not only promoted antigens endocytosis into dendritic cells via receptor-mediated pathways but also induced cross-presentation eliciting CD8+ T-cell responses. CPG-ODN as an adjuvant further enhanced the anti-tumor immune

With-no-lysine (WNK) kinases are a novel family of protein kinases characterized by an atypical placement of the catalytic lysine. Mutations of 2 family members, WNK1 and WNK4, cause pseudohypoaldosteronism type 2 (PHA2), an autosomal-dominant disease characterized by hypertension and hyperkalemia. WNK1 and WNK4 stimulate clathrin-dependent endocytosis of renal outer medullar potassium 1 (ROMK1...

Directed cell migration is critical for numerous physiological processes including development and wound healing. However chemotaxis is also exploited during cancer progression. Recent reports have suggested links between vesicle trafficking pathways and directed cell migration. Very little is known about the potential roles of endocytosis pathways during metastasis. Therefore we performed a se...

Sea urchin oocytes grow to 10 times their original size during oogenesis by both synthesizing and importing a specific repertoire of proteins to drive fertilization and early embryogenesis. During the vitellogenic growth period, the major yolk protein (MYP), a transferrin-like protein, is synthesized in the gut, transported into the ovary, and actively endocytosed by the oocytes. Here, we begin...

GPI-PLC (glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C) is expressed in bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei, a protozoan that causes human African trypanosomiasis. Loss of genes encoding GPI-PLC reduces the virulence of a pleomorphic strain of the parasite, for reasons that are not clear. In the present paper, we report that GPI-PLC stimulates endocytosis of transferrin by 300-500%. Sur...

Synaptic vesicle endocytosis is stimulated by calcium influx in mature central nerve terminals via activation of the calcium-dependent protein phosphatase, calcineurin. However, in different neuronal preparations calcineurin activity is either inhibitory, stimulatory or irrelevant to the process. We addressed this inconsistency by investigating the requirement for calcineurin activity in synapt...

The trafficking of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) gH was investigated under both infection and transfection conditions. In initial endocytosis assays performed in infected cells, the three glycoproteins gE, gI, and gB served as positive controls for internalization from the plasma membrane. Subsequently, we discovered that gH in VZV-infected cells was also internalized and followed a similar traf...

Endocytosis is important for the regulation of signal transduction and for the movement of essential cellular components from outside the cell to their appropriate intracellular compartment(s). Two established mechanisms of endocytosis are clathrinmediated (CME) and clathrin-independent endocytosis, and they are responsible for internalization of different ligands. In this study, the newly esta...

Rapid endocytosis of lipoprotein receptors involves NPxY signals contained in their cytoplasmic tails. Several proteins, including ARH and Dab2, can bind these sequences, but their importance for endocytosis may vary in different cell types. The lipoprotein receptor megalin is expressed in the visceral endoderm (VE), a polarized epithelium that supplies maternal nutrients to the early mammalian...