Primary Citation of Related Structures:   1HX8
PubMed Abstract: 
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis plays a major role in retrieving synaptic vesicles from the plasma membrane following exocytosis. This endocytic process requires AP180 (or a homolog), which promotes the assembly and restricts the size of clathrin-coated vesicles ...
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis plays a major role in retrieving synaptic vesicles from the plasma membrane following exocytosis. This endocytic process requires AP180 (or a homolog), which promotes the assembly and restricts the size of clathrin-coated vesicles. The highly conserved 33 kDa amino-terminal domain of AP180 plays a critical role in binding to phosphoinositides and in regulating the clathrin assembly activity of AP180. The crystal structure of the amino-terminal domain reported herein reveals a novel fold consisting of a large double layer of sheets of ten alpha helices and a unique site for binding phosphoinositides. The finding that the clathrin-box motif is mostly buried and lies in a helix indicates a different site and mechanism for binding of the domain to clathrins than previously assumed.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics Graduate Program, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.