Amoebae and some cancer cells can feed by swallowing large gulps of their surrounding medium. An amoeba can drink nearly its own volume in an hour – an amazing feat if scaled to humans. This process is known as macropinocytosis, and has been studied by Rob Kay’s group in the Cell Biology Division. Day 234 of #LMB365 shows cells forming cups from their plasma membrane. These are shaped around a patch of the lipid PIP3 (orange), surrounded by a necklace of the SCAR/WAVE protein (green) that guides formation of the walls of the cup
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
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