Myosin VI: two distinct roles in endocytosis.

Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California at San Diego, 2129 Bonner Hall, MC 0368, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0368, USA. tama@ucsd.edu

Actin is found at the cortex of the cell where endocytosis occurs, but does it play a role in this essential process? Recent studies on the unconventional myosin, myosin VI, an actin-based molecular motor, provide compelling evidence that this myosin and therefore actin is involved in two distinct steps of endocytosis in higher eukaryotes: the formation of clathrin-coated vesicles and the movement of nascent uncoated vesicles from the actin-rich cell periphery to the early endosome. Three distinct adapter proteins--GIPC, Dab2 and SAP97--that associate with the cargo-binding tail domain of myosin VI have been identified. These proteins may recruit myosin VI to its sites of action.

PMID: 12893809 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]