Clathrin is a triskelion-shaped cytoplasmic protein that polymerises into a polyhedral lattice on intracellular membranes to form protein-coated membrane vesicles. Lattice formation induces the sorting of membrane proteins during endocytosis and organelle biogenesis by interacting with membrane-associated adaptor molecules. Clathrin functions as a trimer, and these trimers, or triskelions, are … expand

Clathrin is a triskelion-shaped cytoplasmic protein that polymerises into a polyhedral lattice on intracellular membranes to form protein-coated membrane vesicles. Lattice formation induces the sorting of membrane proteins during endocytosis and organelle biogenesis by interacting with membrane-associated adaptor molecules. Clathrin functions as a trimer, and these trimers, or triskelions, are comprised of three legs joined by a central vertex. Each leg consists of one heavy chain and one light chain. The clathrin heavy-chain contains a 145-residue repeat that is present in seven copies [ PUBMED:10360576 PUBMED:17702618 ]. The clathrin heavy-chain repeat (CHCR) is also found in nonclathrin proteins such as Pep3, Pep5, Vam6, Vps41, Vps8 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and their orthologues from other eukaryotes such as Vps11 in zebra fish [ PUBMED:10360576 PUBMED:11160821 PUBMED:12906858 PUBMED:11448994 PUBMED:21330665 ]. These proteins, like clathrins, are involved in vacuolar maintenance and protein sorting. The CHCR repeats in these proteins could mediate protein-protein interactions, or possibly represent clathrin-binding domains, or perform clathrin-like functions. CHCR repeats in the clathrin heavy chain, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Vamp2 and human Vamp6 have been implicated in homooligomerization, suggesting that this may be the primary function of this repeat.

The CHCR repeat folds into an elongated right-handed superhelix coil of short α-helices [ PUBMED:10360576 ]. Individual 'helix-turn-helix-loop' or helix hairpin units comprise the canonical repeat and stack along the superhelix axis to form a single extended domain. The canonical hairpin repeat of the clathrin superhelix resembles a tetratrico peptide repeat (TPR), but is shorter and lacks the characteristic spacing of the hydrophobic residues in TPRs.