Yongsoo Park1, Jong Bae Seo2, Alicia Fraind3, Angel Perez-Lara1, Halenur Yavuz1, Kyungreem Han4, Seung-Ryoung Jung2, Iman Kattan5, Peter Jomo Walla5,6, MooYoung Choi4, David S Cafiso3, Duk-Su Koh2 & Reinhard Jahn1
1Department of Neurobiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany. 2Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. 3Department of Chemistry, Center for Membrane Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Theoretical Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 5Biomolecular Spectroscopy and Single-Molecule Detection Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany. 6Department of Biophysical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
Correspondence to : David S Cafiso or Duk-Su Koh or Reinhard Jahn
Abstract
The Ca2+ sensor synaptotagmin-1 is thought to trigger membrane fusion by binding to acidic membrane lipids and SNARE proteins. Previous work has shown that binding is mediated by electrostatic interactions that are sensitive to the ionic environment. However, the influence of divalent or polyvalent ions, at physiological concentrations, on synaptotagmin's binding to membranes or SNAREs has not been explored. Here we show that binding of rat synaptotagmin-1 to membranes containing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) is regulated by charge shielding caused by the presence of divalent cations. Surprisingly, polyvalent ions such as ATP and Mg2+ completely abrogate synaptotagmin-1 binding to SNAREs regardless of the presence of Ca2+. Altogether, our data indicate that at physiological ion concentrations Ca2+-dependent synaptotagmin-1 binding is confined to PIP2-containing membrane patches in the plasma membrane, suggesting that membrane interaction of synaptotagmin-1 rather than SNARE binding triggers exocytosis of vesicles.