- Morris, Kyle L;
- Jones, Joseph R;
- Halebian, Mary;
- Wu, Shenping;
- Baker, Michael;
- Armache, Jean-Paul;
- Avila Ibarra, Amaurys;
- Sessions, Richard B;
- Cameron, Alexander D;
- Cheng, Yifan;
- Smith, Corinne J
Clathrin forms diverse lattice and cage structures that change size and shape rapidly in response to the needs of eukaryotic cells during clathrin-mediated endocytosis and intracellular trafficking. We present the cryo-EM structure and molecular model of assembled porcine clathrin, providing insights into interactions that stabilize key elements of the clathrin lattice, namely, between adjacent heavy chains, at the light chain-heavy chain interface and within the trimerization domain. Furthermore, we report cryo-EM maps for five different clathrin cage architectures. Fitting structural models to three of these maps shows that their assembly requires only a limited range of triskelion leg conformations, yet inherent flexibility is required to maintain contacts. Analysis of the protein-protein interfaces shows remarkable conservation of contact sites despite architectural variation. These data reveal a universal mode of clathrin assembly that allows variable cage architecture and adaptation of coated vesicle size and shape during clathrin-mediated vesicular trafficking or endocytosis.