Clathrin - Structure

Structure

The clathrin triskelion is composed of three clathrin heavy chains and three light chains interacting at their C-termini. The three heavy chains provide the structural backbone of the clathrin lattice, and the three light chains are thought to regulate the formation and disassembly of a clathrin lattice. Clathrin heavy chain is, in concept, broken down into multiple subdomains, starting with the N-terminal domain, followed by the ankle, distal leg, knee, proximal leg, and trimerization domains. The N-terminal domain consists of a seven-bladed β-propeller structure. The other domains form a super-helix of short alpha helices. This was originally determined from the structure of the proximal leg domain that identified and is composed of a smaller structural module referred to as clathrin heavy chain repeat motifs. The light chains bind primarily to the proximal leg portion of the heavy chain with some interaction near the trimerization domain. When triskelia assemble together in solution, they can interact with enough flexibility to form 6-sided rings that yield a flatter lattice, or 5-sided rings that are necessary for curved lattice formation. When many triskelions connect, they can form a basket-like structure.

The structure shown above, is built of 36 triskelia, one of which is highlighted in green. When triskelia snap together in solution, they can interact with enough flexibility to form either 6-sided rings that yield a flatter surface or 5-sided rings with higher curvature. In a cell, a triskelion floating in the cytoplasm binds to an adaptor protein (shown on the next page), linking one of its three feet to the membrane at a time. This triskelion will bind to other membrane-attached triskelia to form a rounded lattice of hexagons and pentagons, reminiscent of the panels on a soccer ball, that pulls the membrane into a bud. By constructing different combinations of 5-sided and 6-sided rings, vesicles of different sizes may assemble. The structure shown here represents the second-smallest possible cage structure, which is actually too small to contain a functional vesicle. It was created in the laboratory by reconstituting triskelions without a lipid vesicle. The smallest clathrin cage commonly photographed, called a mini-coat, has 12 pentagons and only two hexagons. Even smaller cages with zero hexagons probably do not form from the native protein, because the feet of the triskelia are too bulky.