An MBoC Favorite: Receptor-mediated endocytosis in the Caenorhabditis elegans oocyte

In 1999, Barth Grant showed Caenorhabditis elegans biologists and membrane traffic aficionados how to use worms to study membrane traffic (Grant and Hirsh, 1999). Grant fused green fluorescent protein (GFP) to a yolk protein gene and observed receptor-mediated endocytosis of yolk-GFP into germ cells. Trafficking components already known from vertebrates were required in worms as well. This simple experiment set the stage for using worms much as others had used yeast, as a model for identifying new molecular components. Grant and Hirsh’s MBoC paper, as well as parallel work from Jonny Fares and Grant’s ensuing papers, have identified new mechanisms and new components (some not present in yeast) for membrane traffic in animal cells. Their use of worms opened an avenue for study of membrane traffic in a complex, developing, multicellular animal system in which cell polarity and membrane traffic mechanisms turned out to be intertwined, and in which some important tissue-specific differences in membrane traffic mechanisms are being uncovered.