Previously, scientists had been able to create and determine the structure of 'cages' formed by parts of the protein coats that encase other types of vesicles, but this study, published online today in Science, was the first to obtain high-resolution images of complete vesicles, budded from a membrane.
Depicting each copy of COPI as a triangle, the different arrangements of these building blocks become easier to spot.
(Photo Credit: EMBL/M.Faini)
A COPI protein (yellow, green, blue) on the vesicles membrane (red) can change shape to connect to more or fewer copies of itself, making vesicles of different sizes and shapes.
(Photo Credit: EMBL/M.Faini)
Subtle differences between the structures of these vesicles revealed a molecular version of the robots from Transformers.
(Photo Credit: EMBL/M.Faini)