Biophysical Society Conference | Estes Park 2023

Membrane Budding and Fusion

Wednesday Speaker Abstracts

BEYOND REPAIR: ESCRTS ENHANCE MEMBRANE RESILIENCE

Phyllis I. Hanson ; 1 University of Michigan, Biological Chemistry, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

The Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT) machinery is widely utilized in the modification of membranes and is essential for various processes such as the formation of multivesicular bodies, viral budding, cytokinetic abscission, and membrane repair. Recently, there has been growing interest in the role of ESCRTs in repairing “nanoscale” damage on the plasma membrane, nuclear envelope, and organelles within the endolysosomal pathway. In current work, we expand the role of ESCRTs by demonstrating their involvement in reinforcing stressed – yet intact – endolysosomes. This process necessitates the presence of Ca 2+ -bound ALG-2 and interacting ESCRTs. Effective recruitment of ESCRTs improves the ability of endolysosomes to withstand sudden and continuous osmotic stress. Furthermore, we observe accumulations of ESCRTs in regions of specialized plasma membranes devoid of cytoskeleton, suggesting a potentially general role for arrays of ESCRTs in enhancing membrane resilience.

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