Mechanism for mitotic inhibition of clathrin-mediated endocytosis

What is it about?

All the time, cells are taking up material from the outside world. They do this by forming membrane vesicles in a process called endocytosis. When cells undergo cell division, they switch off endocytosis. This has been known since the 1960s but no-one was sure how cells did this. In this paper we describe how endocytosis is inhibited during mitosis.

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Why is it important?

The mechanism of mitotic inhibition of clathrin-mediated endocytosis has long sought after, ever since the phenomenon was first observed in the mid-1960s. Mitotic cells have higher membrane tension. Endocytosis can normally proceed when membrane tension is high, but this requires help from the cytoskeleton. In this paper we show that this help is unavailable in mitotic cells because a rigid cell cortex must form. We describe two methods to restart endocytosis in mitotic cells.