Quantification of lipid sorting during clathrin-mediated endocytosis.

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

• Why it matters: Understanding lipid sorting during endocytosis is important because it influences membrane composition and cellular function, yet it remains unclear 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-mediated endocytosis in cells.
• The result: Findings suggest that lipid asymmetry in the plasma membrane explains lipid partitioning, indicating that clathrin-mediated endocytosis does not substantially contribute to lipid sorting compared to non-vesicular trafficking.