PI3P signaling regulates receptor sorting but not transport in the endosomal pathway.

While evidence is accumulating that phosphoinositide signaling plays a crucial role in growth factor and hormone receptor down-regulation, this signaling pathway has also been proposed to regulate endosomal membrane transport and multivesicular endosome biogenesis. Here, we have followed the fate of the down-regulated EGF receptor (EGFR) and bulk transport (fluid phase) markers in the endosomal pathway in vivo and in vitro. We find that bulk transport from early to late endosomes is not affected after inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI3P) signaling pathway, but that the EGFR then remains trapped in early endosomes. Similarly, we find that hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase substrate (Hrs) is not directly involved in bulk solute transport, but is required for EGFR sorting. These observations thus show that transport and sorting can be uncoupled in the endosomal pathway. They also show that PI3P signaling does not regulate the core machinery of endosome biogenesis and transport, but controls the sorting of down-regulated receptor molecules in early endosomes via Hrs.