title: Clathrin: anatomy of a coat protein.
abstract: Clathrin is a vesicle coat protein involved in the assembly of membrane and cargo into transport vesicles at the plasma membrane and on certain intracellular organelles. Recently, crystal structures of two separate parts of the clathrin heavy chain, a fragment of the proximal leg and the N-terminal domain, have been analysed, providing the first high-resolution data for a vesicle coat protein. Viewing these structures in the context of a hexagonal barrel coat, recently determined to 21 A by cryo-electron microscopy, provides new insights into the assembly of clathrin coats.
authors.affiliation: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, UK CB2 2QH.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Pearse
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002966:Clathrin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003034:Coated Pits, Cell-Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D002966:Clathrin; D046911:Macromolecular Substances