What is the Difference Between COP and Clathrin Coated Vesicles

The key difference between COP and clathrin coated vesicles is that COP coated vesicles are transport vesicles formed by cytoplasmic coated proteins such as coated protein I and II, while clathrin-coated vesicles are transport vesicles formed by clathrin proteins connected to the membrane via one of the clathrin adaptor complexes.

Transport vesicles can move molecules between different cellular locations. For example, they can move proteins from the rough endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus. Proteins are produced on the ribosomes found in the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Then these proteins mature in the Golgi apparatus before they reach their final destination, such as lysosomes, peroxisomes, or outside of the cell. These proteins are transported by the transport vesicles within the cell. COP and clathrin-coated vesicles are two different types of transport vesicles.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What are COP Coated Vesicles
3. What are Clathrin Coated Vesicles
4. Similarities – COP and Clathrin Coated Vesicles
5. COP vs Clathrin Coated Vesicles in Tabular Form
6. Summary – COP vs Clathrin Coated Vesicles

What are COP Coated Vesicles?

COP coated vesicles are transport vesicles formed by cytoplasmic coat proteins such as coated proteins I and II. They are formed when membrane-coated pits invaginate and pinch off. The outer surface of these transport vesicles is covered with a lattice-like network of COP (coat protein complex) proteins. The coat protein complex is of two types: either COPI or COPII. COPI coated vesicles transport molecules backwards from the cisternae of the Golgi apparatus to the rough endoplasmic reticulum. On the other hand, COPII coated vesicles transport molecules from the rough endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus.

Moreover, COPI coated vesicles involve in retrograde transport patterns while COPII coated vesicles involve in anterograde transport patterns. Transport vesicles like COP coated vesicles are sometimes called cargo-containing vessels and coat protein as cargo proteins. These vesicles always move things from donor organelle to recipient organelle. Furthermore, these vesicles can passively diffuse across the cytoplasm or can catch a ride on the cytoskeleton till they reach a precise destination.

What are Clathrin Coated Vesicles?

Clathrin coated vesicles are transport vesicles that are formed by clathrin protein connected to the membrane via one of the clathrin adaptor complexes. Clathrin is a protein that plays a vital role in the formation of coated vesicles. Clathrin protein was first discovered and named by Barbara Pearse in 1976. Clathrin is used to build small vesicles in order to transport molecules within cells.

Endocytosis and exocytosis of these vesicles allow the cells to communicate, transfer nutrients, import signalling receptors, mediate an immune response after sampling the extracellular environment, and clean up the cell debris left by tissue inflammation. Moreover, the endocytic pathway can be hijacked by viruses and other pathogens in order to gain entry into the cell during infection. Furthermore, clathrin-coated vesicles mediate endocytosis of transmembrane receptors and transport of newly synthesized enzymes like lysosomal hydrolases from the trans-Golgi network to the lysosome.

What are the Similarities Between COP and Clathrin Coated Vesicles?

• COP and clathrin-coated vesicles are two different types of transport vesicles.
• Both vesicles are coated with specific proteins.
• These vesicles help to transport important molecules within the cells.
• Both vesicles can be very small.

What is the Difference Between COP and Clathrin Coated Vesicles?

COP coated vesicles are transport vesicles formed by cytoplasmic coat proteins such as coated protein I and II, while clathrin-coated vesicles are transport vesicles formed by clathrin proteins connected to the membrane via one of the clathrin adaptor complexes. Thus, this is the key difference between COP and clathrin coated vesicles.

The below infographic presents the differences between COP and clathrin coated vesicles in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – COP vs Clathrin Coated Vesicles

COP and clathrin-coated vesicles are two different types of transport vesicles. COP coated vesicles are formed by cytoplasmic coat protein such as coated protein I and II, while clathrin-coated vesicles are formed by clathrin protein connected to the membrane via one of the clathrin adaptor complexes. So, this is a summary of the difference between COP and clathrin coated vesicles.

Reference:

1. “COP-Coated Vesicles – Mesh.” National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
2. SL, Schmid. “Clathrin-Coated Vesicle Formation and Protein Sorting: An Integrated Process.” Annual Review of Biochemistry, U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Image Courtesy:

1. “VesiclesPlantsc” By Paul P, Simm S, Mirus O, Scharf KD, Fragkostefanakis S, Schleiff E – figure 1 of “The complexity of vesicle transport factors in plants examined by orthology search.” DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0097745 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0097745 (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Itrafig2” By Grant, B. D. and Sato, M – Wormbook (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Vojtech.dostal.) (CC BY 2.5) via Commons Wikimedia