The budding of membranes and curvature generation is common to many forms of trafficking in cells. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis, as a prototypical example of trafficking, has been studied in great detail using a variety of experimental systems and methods. Recently, advances in experimental methods have led to great strides in insights on the molecular mechanisms and the spatiotemporal dynamics of the protein machinery associated with membrane curvature generation. These advances have been ably supported by computational models, which have given us insights into the underlying mechanical principles of clathrin-mediated endocytosis. On the other hand, targeted experimental perturbation of membranes has lagged behind that of proteins in cells. In this area, modeling is especially critical to interpret experimental measurements in a mechanistic context. Here, we discuss the contributions made by these models to our understanding of endocytosis and identify opportunities to strengthen the connections between models and experiments.

细胞膜的出芽和曲率的产生对于许多形式的细胞运输来说都是常见的。网格蛋白介导的内吞作用，作为贩运的典型例子，已经使用各种实验系统和方法进行了非常详细的研究。最近，实验方法的进步导致对与膜曲率产生相关的蛋白质机制的分子机制和时空动力学的深入了解。这些进展得到了计算模型的有力支持，这让我们深入了解了网格蛋白介导的内吞作用的基本机械原理。另一方面，膜的靶向实验扰动已经落后于细胞中蛋白质的扰动。在这个区域，建模对于解释机械环境中的实验测量尤其重要。在这里，我们讨论了这些模型对我们理解内吞作用的贡献，并确定了加强模型和实验之间联系的机会。