Endocytosis Against High Turgor Pressure is Made Easier by Partial Protein Coating and a Freely Rotating Base

Abstract

During clathrin-mediated endocytosis, a patch of flat plasma membrane is deformed into a vesicle. in walled cells, such as plants and fungi, the turgor pressure is high and pushes the membrane against the cell wall, thus hindering membrane internalization. Using mathematical modeling, we studied how a patch of membrane is deformed against turgor pressure by a point force. We found that a large amount of force is needed to merely start deforming the membrane and an even larger force is needed to pull a membrane tube.