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COP Coated Vesicles

COP Coated Vesicles

Membrane-enclosed structures called vesicles transport proteins and lipids across the cell. The vesicles derive their cargo from the plasma membrane, Golgi, ER, or endosome. Coated vesicles are spherical, protein-coated carriers with a 50–100 nm diameter that mediate bidirectional transport between the ER and the Golgi. The distribution of proteins between the ER and Golgi complex is dynamic and is maintained by different coated vesicles. Their formation is driven by the assembly of different...

Coat Assembly and GTPases

Coat Assembly and GTPases

Vesicles incorporate different coat protein subunits in different cell locations, which changes the properties of the coat, such as the shape and geometry of the transport vesicles. Thus, vesicle coat proteins also play a significant role in cargo selection.
Coat assembly depends on the local availability of phosphatidylinositol phosphates or PIPs and GTP-binding proteins. Adaptor proteins, which link the coat proteins to the membrane, bind to these PIPs and play a crucial role in controlling...

Clathrin Coated Vesicles

Clathrin Coated Vesicles

Clathrin-coated vesicles use endocytosis to transport receptors and lysosomal hydrolases from the Golgi to the lysosome in the late secretory pathway. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis was the first described endocytic process, and Clathrin-coated vesicles remain one of the most well-studied transport vesicles. The molecular machinery that generates clathrin-coated vesicles comprises over 50 proteins that precisely coordinate vesicle formation. Cell surface receptors concentrated in indented sites...

Pinching-off of Coated Vesicles

Pinching-off of Coated Vesicles

Vesicle budding is orchestrated by distinct cytosolic proteins such as adaptor proteins, coat proteins, and GTPases. To initiate vesicle budding, membrane-bending proteins containing crescent-shaped BAR domains bind to the lipid heads in the bilayer and distort the membrane to form a protein-coated vesicle bud. Adaptors proteins such as AP2 for clathrin-coated vesicles can nucleate on the deformed membrane. Finally, coat proteins such as clathrin or COPI and COPII assemble into a coat forming...

Introduction to Membrane Traffic

Introduction to Membrane Traffic

The ER, Golgi apparatus, endosomes, and lysosomes work in tandem to modify, sort, and package proteins and lipids. An integrated membrane trafficking network facilitates the back and forth shuttling of molecules within different organelles in the same cell or across the cell membrane.
The transport of soluble and membrane proteins is mediated by transport vesicles that collect cargo from one cellular compartment and deliver it to another by fusing with the target organelle membrane. The Rab...

Vesicular Tubular Clusters

Vesicular Tubular Clusters

After budding out from the ER membrane, some COPII vesicles lose their coat and fuse with one another to form larger vesicles and interconnected tubules called vesicular tubular clusters or VTCs. These clusters constitute a compartment at the ER-Golgi interface known as ERGIC (Endoplasmic Reticulum Golgi Intermediate Compartment). The ERGIC is a mobile membrane-bound cargo transport system that sorts proteins secreted from ER and delivers them to the Golgi.
With the help of motor proteins such...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 14, 2026

Directed Assembly of Elastin-like Proteins into defined Supramolecular Structures and Cargo Encapsulation In Vitro

Directed Assembly of Elastin-like Proteins into defined Supramolecular Structures and Cargo Encapsulation In Vitro

Published on: April 8, 2020

Vesicle coats: structure, function, and general principles of assembly.

Marco Faini¹, Rainer Beck, Felix T Wieland

¹Structural and Computational Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.

Trends in Cell Biology

|February 19, 2013

Summary

Vesicle coats like clathrin, COPII, and COPI self-assemble to transport cellular cargo. Structural analysis reveals shared ancestry and function, yet distinct assembly mechanisms for these essential protein coats.

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Last Updated: May 14, 2026

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Area of Science:

Cell Biology
Structural Biology
Biochemistry

Background:

Cellular transport relies on coated vesicles, formed by self-assembling coat proteins.
These protein coats mediate cargo collection, membrane bending, and vesicle budding for intracellular trafficking.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide a structural overview of the three major vesicle coats: clathrin, COPII, and COPI.
To compare and contrast the structural similarities and differences among these coats.
To discuss the functional, assembly, and evolutionary implications of their structures.

Main Methods:

Review of recent X-ray crystallography data.
Analysis of electron microscopy (EM) models of coat components and assembled coats.

Main Results:

Detailed structural models of clathrin, COPII, and COPI coats are presented.
Similarities in function and ancestry are highlighted.
Fundamental differences in coat structure and assembly mechanisms are identified.

Conclusions:

Structural insights into vesicle coats inform their function, assembly, and evolution.
Understanding these distinct yet related coat systems is crucial for deciphering cellular transport pathways.
Comparative structural analysis reveals conserved principles and divergent strategies in vesicle-mediated transport.