Disassembly Asymmetry Score Classification (DASC)

Xinxin Wang et al. publish sensitive, unsupervised classifier for endocytosis recently published in eLife. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) is the major pathway for cellular uptake of macro-molecular cargo. Imaging approaches allow for observation of the process of clathrin assembly and coated pit maturation, but the mechanistic analysis of CCP dynamics has faced significant limitations. Towards overcoming this analysis hurdle, Wang et. al. developed a thermodynamics-inspired method, referred to as disassembly asymmetry score classification(DASC). Their validation studies establish DASC as an indispensable tool for comprehensively revealing which endocytic accessory proteins act at specific stages to mediate endocytic coated vesicle formation, functions that were previously not detectable by bulk biochemical measurements.

Schematic of 4 stages of clathrin-mediated endocytosis. CS initiation, CCP stabilization, CCP maturation and CCV internalization.