Endocytosis is a conserved cellular process in which nutrients, lipids, and receptors are internalized and transported to early endosomes, where they are sorted and either channeled to degradative pathways or recycled to the plasma membrane. MICAL-L1 and EHD1 are important regulatory proteins that control key endocytic transport steps. However, the precise mechanisms by which they mediate transport, and particularly the mode by which they connect to motor proteins, have remained enigmatic. Here we have identified the collapsin response mediator protein-2 (Crmp2) as an interaction partner of MICAL-L1 in non-neuronal cells. Crmp2 interacts with tubulin dimers and kinesin and negatively regulates dynein-based transport in neuronal cells, but its expression and function in non-neuronal cells have remained poorly characterized. Upon Crmp2 depletion, we observed dramatic relocalization of internalized transferrin (Tf) from peripheral vesicles to the endocytic recycling compartment (ERC), similar to the effect of depleting either MICAL-L1 or EHD1. Moreover, Tf relocalization to the ERC could be inhibited by interfering with microtubule polymerization, consistent with a role for uncoupled motor proteinbased transport upon depletion of Crmp2, MICAL-L1, or EHD1. Finally, transfection of dynamitin, a component of the dynactin complex whose overexpression inhibits dynein activity, prevented the relocalization of internalized Tf to the ERC upon depletion of Crmp2, MICAL-L1, or EHD1. These data provide the first trafficking regulatory role for Crmp2 in non-neuronal cells and support a model in which Crmp2 is an important endocytic regulatory protein that links MICAL-L1⅐EHD1-based vesicular transport to dynein motors.The complexity of the endocytic pathways has broadened in recent years upon discovery of the involvement of the four C-terminal Eps 15 homology domain (EHD) 3 proteins (reviewed in Ref. 1). Since the single Caenorhabditis elegans ortholog (known as RME-1) was originally identified as a regulator of yolk receptor recycling (2), its closest mammalian homolog, EHD1, was found to regulate the recycling of receptors that traverse both the clathrin-dependent (3, 4) and the clathrin-independent (5, 6) internalization pathways. Despite similarities to the Ras family of GTP-binding proteins (5, 7), EHD proteins bind and hydrolyze ATP (7-9), a function necessary for their localization to tubular and vesicular membranes (5,7,10).Proteins that contain EH domains interact with the tripeptide asparagine-proline-phenylalanine (NPF) (11). Recent studies have determined that the EH domains of the C-terminal EHD proteins have a highly positively charged surface (12) and selectively interact with NPF motifs followed by clusters of acidic residues (13, 14). Moreover, EHD proteins coordinate endocytic transport with Rab proteins through their interactions with common effectors that contain such NPF motifs (9, 15). More recently, it was demonstrated that EHD1 interacts with the NPF-containing MICAL family protein, MICAL-L1, a Rab8 ef...