Role of dynamin-related proteins 2 and SH3P2 in clathrin-mediated endocytosis in plants

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) is vital for the regulation of plant growth and development by controlling plasma membrane protein composition and cargo uptake. CME relies on the precise recruitment of regulators for vesicle maturation and release. Homologues of components of mammalian vesicle scission are strong candidates to be part of the scissin machinery in plants, but the precise roles of these proteins in this process is not fully understood. Here, we characterised the roles of Plant Dynamin-Related Proteins 2 (DRP2s) and SH3-domain containing protein 2 (SH3P2), the plant homologue to Dynamins’ recruiters, like Endophilin and Amphiphysin, in the CME by combining high-resolution imaging of endocytic events in vivo and characterisation of the purified proteins in vitro. Although DRP2s and SH3P2 arrive similarly late during CME and physically interact, genetic analysis of the Dsh3p1,2,3 triple-mutant and complementation assays with non-SH3P2-interacting DRP2 variants suggests that SH3P2 does not directly recruit DRP2s to the site of endocytosis. These observations imply that despite the presence of many well-conserved endocytic components, plants have acquired a distinct mechanism for CME. One Sentence Summary In contrast to predictions based on mammalian systems, plant Dynamin-related proteins 2 are recruited to the site of Clathrin-mediated endocytosis independently of BAR-SH3 proteins.