한빛사논문
- 조회1,481
Abstract
Young-Joon Koa,1, Miriam Leea,1, KyeongJin Kangb, Woo Keun Songa, and Youngsoo Juna,2
aCell Dynamics Research Center and Bio-imaging Research Center, School of Life Sciences, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea; and
bSamsung Biomedical Research Institute and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Intracellular membrane fusion requires not only SNARE proteins but also other regulatory proteins such as the Rab and Sec1/Munc18 (SM) family proteins. Although neuronal SNARE proteins alone can drive the fusion between synthetic liposomes, it remains unclear whether they are also sufficient to induce the fusion of biological membranes. Here, through the use of engineered yeast vacuoles bearing neuronal SNARE proteins, we show that neuronal SNAREs can induce membrane fusion between yeast vacuoles and that this fusion does not require the function of the Rab protein Ypt7p or the SM family protein Vps33p, both of which are essential for normal yeast vacuole fusion. Although excess vacuolar SNARE proteins were also shown to mediate Rab-bypass fusion, this fusion required homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting complex, which bears Vps33p and was accompanied by extensive membrane lysis. We also show that this neuronal SNARE-driven vacuole fusion can be stimulated by the neuronal SM protein Munc18 and blocked by botulinum neurotoxin serotype E, a well-known inhibitor of synaptic vesicle fusion. Taken together, our results suggest that neuronal SNARE proteins are sufficient to induce biological membrane fusion, and that this new assay can be used as a simple and complementary method for investigating synaptic vesicle fusion mechanisms.
1Y.-J.K. and M.L. contributed equally to this work.
2To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Author contributions: Y.-J.K., M.L., and Y.J. designed research; Y.-J.K., M.L., K.K., and Y.J. performed research; W.K.S. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; Y.-J.K., M.L., K.K., W.K.S., and Y.J. analyzed data; and Y.-J.K., M.L., and Y.J. wrote the paper.
논문정보
- Research article
- 2014년 05월 (BRIC 등록일 2014-05-16)
- 국내 연구진
- 생명과학 > 세포생물학
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