Loss Of PTEN Promotes Formation Of Signaling-Capable Clathrin-Coated Pits

Defective endocytosis and vesicular trafficking of signaling receptors has recently emerged as a multifaceted hallmark of malignant cells. Clathrin-coated pits (CCPs), the fundamental unit of clathrin-mediated endocytosis, display highly heterogeneous dynamics on the plasma membrane where they can take from 20 seconds to over a minute to form cytosolic coated-vesicles. Despite the large number of cargo molecules that traffic through CCPs, it is not well understood whether signaling receptors activated in cancer, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), are regulated through a specific subset of CCPs. The signaling lipid phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-triphosphate (PI(3,4,5)P3), which is dephosphorylated by phosphatase tensin homolog (PTEN), is a potent tumorigenic signaling lipid that is present in excess in many types of cancers. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and automated tracking and detection of CCPs, we find PTEN and EGF bound EGFR are enriched in a distinct subset of short-lived CCPs that corresponded with clathrin-dependent EGF-induced signaling. By deleting PTEN using CRISPR-Cas9 and reconstituting PTEN, we demonstrate that PTEN plays a role in the regulation of CCP dynamics; this appears to recapitulate CCP dynamics in highly metastatic PTEN-deleted cancer cells where we find a larger proportion of short-lived CCPs and higher initiation density compared to the normal cells. Furthermore, increased PI(3,4,5)P3 results in higher proportion of short-lived CCPs, an effect that recapitulates PTEN deletion. Our findings provide strong evidence for the existence of short-lived signaling-capable CCPs. Altogether, these findings demonstrate the importance of PTEN and PI(3,4,5)P3 in regulating CCP dynamics and assign a new function to PTEN as a modulator of signaling-capable CCPs.