Simulating clathrin mediated endocytosis

Endocytosis is a process by which cells internalize large molecules. When adaptor proteins (AP2) bind to the cell membrane and cargo, they release a motif that binds clathrin proteins. The collected clathrin triskelia self-assemble into a lattice with pentagonal and hexagonal facets. The membrane starts to bend and eventually is wrapped around the cargo. A scission protein cuts the neck, the clathrin coat is removed, and the vesicle carries its cargo to an organelle for further processing. We are using highly coarse-grained patchy particles to simulate the formation of clathrin cages and clathrin coated membrane pits. The protein particles and membrane nodes are propagated by translational and rotational Brownian dynamics,5 subject to conservative forces and click-potentials turned on and off by Monte Carlo moves.6,7 We also explore the impact of APs on clathrin cage formation in solution by statistical mechanical considerations.