Recombinant endophilin creates tubules.
Endophilin joins dynamin and amphiphysin in the league of endocytic proteins with lipid-deforming properties. All three proteins can act alone to deform membranes, and both amphiphysin and endophilin interact with dynamin, but the mode of action of the proteins remains obscure. Others had suggested that endophilin acts as an acyl transferase to modify the shape of inner leaflet phospholipids, and thus the membrane curvature. But Farsad et al. find that endophilin can tubulate membranes during an incubation that is either on ice or lacking the substrates for the relevant acyl transfer reaction.
The authors find that amphiphysin and endophilin share a short stretch of homology, essential for endophilin action, that may form...
