What are Flotillins?

What are Flotillins?

Flotillins are highly conserved proteins that localize into specific cholesterol rich microdomains in cellular membranes. They have been shown to be associated with, for example, various signaling pathways, cell adhesion, membrane trafficking and axonal growth.

What is Flotillin 1?

Flotillin-1 may be a component of morphologically defined caveolae in some cell types, but it is expressed in cells and organisms that lack the defining protein components of caveolae, caveolins, and the relationship between caveolins and flotillin-1 is not clear7,16.

What is the role of caveolin?

The caveolin proteins (caveolin-1, -2, and -3) serve as the structural components of caveolae, while also functioning as scaffolding proteins, capable of recruiting numerous signaling molecules to caveolae, as well as regulating their activity.

Does skeletal muscle have Caveolae?

Caveolae are extremely abundant in adipocytes, skeletal muscle cells, endothelia and fibroblasts but undetectable in some other cell types. Caveolae are generally classified as uncoated structures as they do not possess the prominent coat structure characteristic of clathrin coated pits.

What is Potocytosis in biology?

potocytosis (plural potocytoses) (biology) A type of receptor-mediated endocytosis in which small molecules are transported by caveolae across the plasma membrane of a cell and deposited directly into the cytosol.

What are Caveolae smooth muscle?

Caveolae are 50- to 90-nm flask-shaped invaginations that appear in rows in periodic register along the longitudinal axis of the smooth muscle membrane, interspersed by regions of dense bodies anchoring the cytoskeleton, as illustrated in Fig. 1A.

Where is CD81 found?

CD81 is a tetraspanin molecule expressed on immune cells, hepatocytes, and most stromal and epithelial cells, unlike CD19 and CD21 which are mostly expressed on B cells.

What is the difference between pinocytosis and potocytosis?

In reality, this is a process that takes in molecules, including water, which the cell needs from the extracellular fluid. Pinocytosis results in a much smaller vesicle than does phagocytosis, and the vesicle does not need to merge with a lysosome (Figure 2). A variation of pinocytosis is called potocytosis.

Is pinocytosis and potocytosis same?

A variation of pinocytosis is called potocytosis . This process uses a coating protein, called caveolin , on the cytoplasmic side of the plasma membrane, which performs a similar function to clathrin.

What is CD81 gene?

CD81 molecule, also known as CD81 (Cluster of Differentiation 81), is a protein which in humans is encoded by the CD81 gene. It is also known as 26 kDa cell surface protein, TAPA-1 (Target of the Antiproliferative Antibody 1), and Tetraspanin-28 (Tspan-28).

What is Flotillin-1?

“Flotillin-1 defines a clathrin-independent endocytic pathway in mammalian cells”. Nat. Cell Biol. 8 (1): 46–54. doi: 10.1038/ncb1342. PMID 16341206. S2CID 36695735. FLOT1 human gene location in the UCSC Genome Browser.

Is Flotillin-1 a clathrin-independent endocytic pathway?

“Flotillin-1 defines a clathrin-independent endocytic pathway in mammalian cells”. Nat. Cell Biol. 8 (1): 46–54. doi: 10.1038/ncb1342.

Do flotillins form hetero-oligomeric complex with caveolins?

“Flotillins/cavatellins are differentially expressed in cells and tissues and form a hetero-oligomeric complex with caveolins in vivo. Characterization and epitope-mapping of a novel flotillin-1 monoclonal antibody probe”. J.