vesicular coat proteins
Proteins and lipids to be transported are sorted to specific sites on the donor membrane, or compartment, and transport vesicles bud with the aid of cytosolic complexes of coat proteins.
Vesicles move along cytoskeletal tracks, either microtubules or actin filaments, with the help of motor proteins.
The vesicle is tethered and docked near the target membrane and subsequently fuses with the acceptor bilayer, releasing its contents into the target, or acceptor, compartment.
Vesicular coat proteins mediate the formation of nascent vesicles and select the cargo to be incorporated therein.
As additional coat proteins are discovered that regulate vesicular traffic along very specific intracellular pathways, the possibility looms of regulating the intracellular trafficking and targeting of therapeutic agents by modulation of the action of vesicular coat proteins.
Examples are provided of coat proteins thought to regulate the trafficking of pharmaceutically relevant molecules via clathrin-mediated endocytosis, caveolae-mediated endocytosis, and transcytosis.
Members
COPI
COPII
clathrin
See also
vesicular transport
References
Palmer KJ, Stephens DJ. Biogenesis of ER-to-Golgi transport carriers: complex roles of COPII in ER export. Trends Cell Biol. 2004 Feb;14(2):57-61. PMID: #15106609#
Olkkonen VM, Ikonen E. Genetic defects of intracellular-membrane transport. N Engl J Med. 2000 Oct 12;343(15):1095-104. PMID: #11027745#