Eisosomes are among the few remaining eukaryotic cellular differentations that lack a defined function(s). These trough-shaped invaginations of the plasma membrane have largely been studied in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in which their associated proteins, including two BAR domain proteins, have been identified, and homologues have been found throughout the fungal radiation. Using quick-freeze deep-etch electron microscopy to generate high-resolution replicas of membrane fracture faces without the use of chemical fixation, we report that eisosomes are also present in a subset of red and green microalgae as well as in the cysts of the ciliate Euplotes. Eisosome assembly is closely correlated with both the presence and the nature of cell walls. Microalgal eisosomes vary extensively in topology and internal organization. Unlike fungi, their convex fracture faces can carry lineage-specific arrays of intramembranous particles, and their concave fracture faces usually display fine striations, also seen in fungi, that are pitched at lineage-specific angles and, in some cases, adopt a broad-banded patterning. The conserved genes that encode fungal eisosome-associated proteins are not found in sequenced algal genomes, but we identified genes encoding two algal lineage-specific families of predicted BAR domain proteins, called Green-BAR and Red-BAR, that are candidate eisosome organizers. We propose a model for eisosome formation wherein (i) positively charged recognition patches first establish contact with target membrane regions and (ii) a (partial) unwinding of the coiled-coil conformation of the BAR domains then allows interactions between the hydrophobic faces of their amphipathic helices and the lipid phase of the inner membrane leaflet, generating the striated patterns.
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