Regulated endocytosis of G-protein-coupled receptors by a biochemically and functionally distinct subpopulation of clathrin-coated pits

beta-2 Adrenergic receptors (B2ARs) are endocytosed by clathrin coated pits. This process serves specialized functions in signal transduction and receptor regulation, raising the question of whether B2ARs are associated with biochemically specialized membrane vesicles during their endocytic trafficking. Here we show that B2ARs are endocytosed by a distinct subpopulation of clathrin-coated pits, which represent a limited subset of coated pits present in the plasma membrane, even in cells overexpressing both B2ARs and p-arrestin. Coated pits mediating agonist-induced endocytosis of B2ARs differ from other coated pits mediating constitutive endocytosis of transferrin receptors in their temperature dependence for fission from the plasma membrane and in the association of their membrane coats with p-arrestin. Endocytosis of these coated pits generates endocytic vesicles selectively enriched in B2ARs, which fuse within similar to 10 min after their formation with a common population of endosomes containing both B2ARs and transferrin receptors. These observations demonstrate, for the first time, the existence of a functionally and biochemically distinct subpopulation of clathrin-coated pits that mediate the agonist-regulated endocytosis of G-protein-coupled receptors, and they suggest a new model for the formation of compositionally specialized membrane vesicles at the earliest stage of the endocytic pathway.