Building endocytic pits without clathrin

Abstract

How endocytic pits are built in clathrin- and caveolin-independent endocytosis still remains poorly understood. Recent insight suggests that different forms of clathrin-independent endocytosis might involve the actin-driven focusing of membrane constituents, the lectin-glycosphingolipid-dependent construction of endocytic nanoenvironments, and Bin-Amphiphysin-Rvs (BAR) domain proteins serving as scaffolding modules. We discuss the need for different types of internalization processes in the context of diverse cellular functions, the existence of clathrin-independent mechanisms of cargo recruitment and membrane bending from a biological and physical perspective, and finally propose a generic scheme for the formation of clathrin-independent endocytic pits.