Clathrin-coated vesicle formation: a paradigm for coated-vesicle formation

Clathrin-coated pits are the major ports of entry into the cell and are responsible for the internalization of a variety of biologically important macromolecules. These transport intermediates form as a result of the co-ordinated assembly of a number of cytosolic proteins on to the membrane which results in specific cargo recruitment. We have used a variety of approaches including permeabilized cell assays and light and electron microscopy to identify and characterize the proteins and enzymes involved in coated vesicle formation.