Converging views of endocytosis in yeast and mammals

Receptor-mediated endocytosis is important for the selective internalization of membrane proteins. In mammals, clathrin, adaptors, and dynamin play prominent roles in regulating cargo selection and vesicle formation. Endocytosis in yeast is generally conserved, but exhibits significant and perplexing differences in the relative importance of clathrin adaptors, dynamin-like proteins, and actin. Recent studies are now reconciling divergent views of endocytic processes in yeast and mammals. The discovery of cargo-specific functions for yeast homologs of mammalian clathrin adaptors has rapidly expanded the number of endocytic adaptors in yeast. Moreover, unifying models have been advanced to explain how dynamin, actin, and membrane-deforming proteins drive membrane scission. While differences remain, discoveries from each system will continue to inform the other.