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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Dec 10.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2007 Aug 1;8(8):603–12. doi: 10.1038/nrm2216

Figure 1. Pathways of entry into cells.

Figure 1

Large particles can be taken up by phagocytosis, whereas fluid uptake occurs by macropinocytosis. Both processes appear to be triggered by and are dependent on actin-mediated remodelling of the plasma membrane at a large scale. Compared with the other endocytic pathways, the size of the vesicles formed by phagocytosis and macropinocytosis is much larger. Numerous cargoes (TABLE 1) can be endocytosed by mechanisms that are independent of the coat protein clathrin and the fission GTPase, dynamin. This Review focuses on the clathrin-independent pathways, some of which are also dynamin independent (FIGS 2,3). Most internalized cargoes are delivered to the early endosome via vesicular (clathrin- or caveolin-coated vesicles) or tubular intermediates (known as clathrin- and dynamin-independent carriers (CLICs)) that are derived from the plasma membrane. Some pathways may first traffic to intermediate compartments, such as the caveosome or glycosyl phosphatidylinositol-anchored protein enriched early endosomal compartments (GEEC), en route to the early endosome.