Penn Research Reveals Critical Relationship for How Cells Ingest Matter

When cells take in material from their environment, proteins within the cell pull inward on its membrane, forming a pit that encapsulates the material in a bubble called a vesicle. In a new study published in Nature Communications, Associate Professor of Chemistry Tobias Baumgart and Zheng Shi, a graduate student in Baumgart’s lab, reveal a relationship which governs this process, known as endocytosis.

They show that the threshold at which proteins succeed at making a vesicle depends on both the quantity of membrane-bending proteins and the tension in the membrane itself. As tension on the membrane decreases, fewer proteins are needed to reach the critical mass. Calculating where this threshold is in a given cell would be useful for understanding many biological processes. Many diseases disrupt normal endocytosis, so altering this threshold might prove to be a basis for future treatments. 

Read the full story here.