Loss of PTEN promotes formation of signaling-capable clathrin-coated pits

Defective endocytosis and vesicular trafficking of signaling receptors has recently emerged as a multifaceted hallmark of malignant cells. Clathrin-coated pits (CCPs) display highly heterogeneous dynamics on the plasma membrane where they can take from 20 s to over 1 min to form cytosolic coated vesicles. Despite the large number of cargo molecules that traffic through CCPs, it is not well understood whether signaling receptors activated in cancer, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), are regulated through a specific subset of CCPs. The signaling lipid phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate [PI(3,4,5)P₃], which is dephosphorylated by phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), is a potent tumorigenic signaling lipid. By using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and automated tracking and detection of CCPs, we found that EGF-bound EGFR and PTEN are enriched in a distinct subset of short-lived CCPs that correspond with clathrin-dependent EGF-induced signaling. We demonstrated that PTEN plays a role in the regulation of CCP dynamics. Furthermore, increased PI(3,4,5)P₃ resulted in higher proportion of short-lived CCPs, an effect that recapitulates PTEN deletion. Altogether, our findings provide evidence for the existence of short-lived 'signaling-capable' CCPs.