Quantification of lipid sorting during clathrin-mediated endocytosis.

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis shows only minor selectivity for cytoplasmic leaflet lipids, with lipid partitioning differences ranging from slight enrichment to moderate exclusion.

• Why it matters: Understanding lipid sorting during endocytosis is crucial because it influences membrane composition and cellular signaling, yet it remains poorly characterized whether this process actively sorts lipids.
• What they did: The study used super-resolution stimulated emission depletion imaging combined with mathematical modeling to quantify ten different lipid species during clathrin-coated pit formation, revealing lipid partitioning patterns.
• The result: Findings suggest that lipid asymmetry in the plasma membrane largely explains the observed sorting, indicating that clathrin-mediated endocytosis does not significantly contribute to lipid sorting beyond non-vesicular trafficking.