Epsin thenmediates the assembly of a clathrin cage, which
results in membrane curvature induced by the coated-pit formation.
Once assembled, the clathrin-coated pits are pinched off from the
plasma membrane by dynamin to form clathrin-coated vesicles which
are then trafficked to endosomes (Doherty and McMahon, 2009;
Mousavi et al., 2004). Whether YHV utilizes this pathway as a route of
entry into shrimp cells remained to be investigated. Therefore, one
purpose of this study was to characterize the YHV entry pathway by
using several trafficking inhibitors. P. monodon clathrin heavy chain
(PmCHC), a major protein component in the clathrin-dependent pathway
was cloned and characterized. The suppression effect of PmCHC
in YHV-challenged shrimp also was investigated.