membrane coat

GO:0030117 · Other · Multiprotein complex · Proposed

Any of several different proteinaceous coats that can associate with membranes. Membrane coats include those formed by clathrin plus an adaptor complex, the COPI and COPII complexes, and possibly others. They are found associated with membranes on many vesicles as well as other membrane features such as pits and perhaps tubules. [GO:0030117]

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
membrane-coat scaffold proteins	Protein	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			UNKNOWN	Proteinaceous scaffold subunits or coat subcomplexes that assemble into coats on membranes. `GO:0030117` GO defines membrane coats as proteinaceous coats that associate with membranes, including clathrin/adaptor, COPI and COPII coats. `GO:0030118` GO places clathrin coats under the membrane-coat parent. `GO:0030120` GO places vesicle coats under the membrane-coat parent.
membrane-coat adaptor and recruitment modules	Protein	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			UNKNOWN	Connects coat scaffold assemblies to membranes or cargo in subtype-specific membrane coats. `GO:0030119` GO defines AP-type membrane coat adaptor complexes as membrane-coat complexes that link clathrin or another protein scaffold to membranes and selected cargo. `DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.015` Yu et al. 2012 showed that Arf1-GTP binds two coatomer subcomplexes during COPI coatomer recruitment to membranes. `PMID:8004676` Barlowe et al. 1994 identified Sar1p as one of the proteins that forms the COPII coat on ER-derived vesicles.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Budding yeast has a COPII membrane-coat system in which Sar1p and Sec-family coat proteins drive ER transport-vesicle budding. [PMID:8004676]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Budding-yeast COPII model in which Sar1p, Sec13p, Sec31p, Sec23p, and Sec24p were identified as a membrane coat that drives ER transport-vesicle budding. [PMID:8004676]

Mechanism graphs

Protein modules assemble a membrane coat (ASSEMBLY)

Membrane-coat scaffold proteins and subtype-specific recruitment modules associate with a membrane to form a proteinaceous coat.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
membrane-coat adaptor and recruitment modules	helps recruit	membrane-coat scaffold proteins	`GO:0030119` GO defines AP-type membrane coat adaptor complexes as adaptors between a protein scaffold and a membrane or cargo. `DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.015` Yu et al. 2012 showed that Arf1-GTP binds coatomer and supports its membrane recruitment.
membrane-coat scaffold proteins	assembles at	membrane surface	`GO:0030117` GO defines membrane coats as proteinaceous coats that can associate with membranes.
membrane-coat scaffold proteins	forms	membrane coat	`GO:0030117` GO lists clathrin/adaptor, COPI, and COPII coats as examples of proteinaceous membrane coats.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (RESOLVED): Keep the membrane-coat record broader than the vesicle-coat record. GO:0030117 covers proteinaceous coats on vesicles and other membrane features such as pits and possible tubules, while GO:0030120 is the vesicle-coat child restricted to coated vesicles. This record therefore represents the membrane-associated coat parent rather than duplicating the existing vesicle-coat record.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact source-neutral groundings for membrane-coat scaffold and recruitment modules. The broad membrane-coat parent spans several unrelated coat and recruitment systems; this first parent record uses reviewed labels rather than forcing clathrin, COPI, COPII, or AP-specific groundings onto the entire class.
CURATION_TODO (RESOLVED): Keep the Saccharomyces canonical example scoped to the cited COPII evidence. GO:0030117 is a broad parent over clathrin/adaptor, COPI, COPII, and possible additional membrane coats. The cited Barlowe et al. 1994 paper directly supports a budding-yeast COPII membrane coat, so the Saccharomyces taxonomic and canonical-example notes are narrowed to COPII rather than claiming one citation supports all curated yeast clathrin, COPI, and COPII vesicle-coat subclasses.

Evidence

GO:0030117 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for membrane coat.
GO:0098796 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for membrane protein complexes.
GO:0030118 Gene Ontology child term for clathrin coats.
GO:0030120 Gene Ontology child term for vesicle coats.
GO:0030119 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for AP-type membrane coat adaptor complexes.
DOI:10.1083/jcb.106.5.1453 Payne et al. 1988, Protein transport to the vacuole and receptor-mediated endocytosis by clathrin heavy chain-deficient yeast, Journal of Cell Biology.
DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.015 Yu et al. 2012, A Structure-Based Mechanism for Arf1-Dependent Recruitment of Coatomer to Membranes, Cell.
PMID:8004676 Barlowe et al. 1994, COPII: A membrane coat formed by Sec proteins that drive vesicle budding from the endoplasmic reticulum, Cell.

Curation history

2026-09-16T04:36:25Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-16T04:37:38Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added membrane-protein-complex parentage, broad reviewed-label-only scaffold and recruitment components, Saccharomyces scope and canonical example, GO and DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic coat assembly graph, and vesicle-coat-boundary plus grounding discussions.
2026-09-16T04:50:09Z codex · ADDRESSED_PR_REVIEW — Resolved PR #1063 review issue #1064 by narrowing the Saccharomyces taxonomic and canonical-example notes to the cited COPII evidence and documenting the parent-level scope boundary.
2026-09-21T09:25:14Z codex · REPLACED_UNREADABLE_EVIDENCE — Resolved #1229 by routing Barlowe et al. 1994 COPII evidence through reachable PMID:8004676 instead of the unreadable Cell DOI.
2026-09-21T11:01:21Z codex · REPLACED_UNREADABLE_EVIDENCE — Resolved #1235 by replacing unreadable COPI ARF evidence with reachable Yu et al. 2012 evidence for Arf1-dependent coatomer recruitment.

Source: data/structures/other/membrane_coat.yaml