F. Parlati et al., Rapid and efficient fusion of phospholipid vesicles by the alpha-helical core of a SNARE complex in the absence of an N-terminal regulatory domain, P NAS US, 96(22), 1999, pp. 12565-12570
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary
Journal title
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A protease-resistant core domain of the neuronal SNARE complex consists of
an alpha-helical bundle similar to the proposed fusogenic core of viral fus
ion proteins [Skehel, J. J. & Wiley, D. C. (1998) Cell 95, 871-874]. We fin
d that the isolated core of a SNARE complex efficiently fuses artificial bi
layers and does so faster than full length SNAREs. Unexpectedly, a dramatic
increase in speed results from removal of the N-terminal domain of the t-S
NARE syntaxin, which does not affect the rate of assembly of v-t SNARES. In
the absence of this negative regulatory domain, the half-time for fusion o
f an entire population of lipid vesicles by isolated SNARE cores (approxima
te to 10 min) is compatible with the kinetics of fusion in many cell types.