The evolution of dynamin to regulate clathrin-mediated endocytosis: speculations on the evolutionarily late appearance of dynamin relative to clathrin-mediated endocytosis

Whereas clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) exists in all eukaryotic cells, we first detect classical dynamin in Ichthyosporid, a single-cell, metazoan precursor. Based on a key functional residue in its pleckstrin homology domain, we speculate that the evolution of metazoan dynamin coincided with the specialized need for regulated CME during neurotransmission.