Rockefeller University Digital Commons @ RU Student Theses and Dissertations 2012 Conserved and Novel Properties of Clathrin- Mediated Endocytosis in Dictyostelium Discoideum Laura Macro Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/ student_theses_and_dissertations Part of the Life Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Macro, Laura, "Conserved and Novel Properties of Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis in Dictyostelium Discoideum" (2012). Student Theses and Dissertations. Paper 163. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ RU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ RU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CONSERVED AND NOVEL PROPERTIES OF CLATHRIN- MEDIATED ENDOCYTOSIS IN DICTYOSTELIUM DISCOIDEUM A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The Rockefeller University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Laura Macro June 2012 © Copyright by Laura Macro 2012 CONSERVED AND NOVEL PROPERTIES OF CLATHRIN- MEDIATED ENDOCYTOSIS IN DICTYOSTELIUM DISCOIDEUM Laura Macro, Ph.D. The Rockefeller University 2012 The protein clathrin mediates one of the major pathways of endocytosis from the extracellular milieu and plasma membrane. Clathrin functions with a network of interacting accessory proteins, one of which is the adaptor complex AP-2, to co-ordinate vesicle formation. Disruption of genes involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis causes embryonic lethality in multicellular animals suggesting that clathrin-mediated endocytosis is a fundamental cellular process. However, loss of clathrin-mediated endocytosis genes in single cell eukaryotes, such as S.cerevisiae (yeast), does not cause lethality, suggesting that clathrin may convey specific advantages for multicellularity.