Essential role of the endocytic site-associated protein Ecm25 in stress-induced cell elongation

How cells adopt a different morphology to cope with stress is not well understood. Here, we show that budding yeast Ecm25 associates with polarized endocytic sites and interacts with the polarity regulator Cdc42 and several late-stage endocytic proteins via distinct regions, including an actin filament-binding motif. Deletion of ECM25 does not affect Cdc42 activity or cause any strong defects in fluid-phase and clathrin-mediated endocytosis but completely abolishes hydroxyurea-induced cell elongation. This phenotype is accompanied by depolarization of the spatiotemporally coupled exo-endocytosis in the bud cortex while maintaining the overall mother-bud polarity. These data suggest that Ecm25 provides an essential link between the polarization signal and the endocytic machinery to enable adaptive morphogenesis under stress conditions.