Chaperoning SNARE assembly and disassembly.

Publication Year
2016

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

Intracellular membrane fusion is mediated in most cases by membrane-bridging complexes of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs). However, the assembly of such complexes in vitro is inefficient, and their uncatalysed disassembly is undetectably slow. Here, we focus on the cellular machinery that orchestrates assembly and disassembly of SNARE complexes, thereby regulating processes ranging from vesicle trafficking to organelle fusion to neurotransmitter release. Rapid progress is being made on many fronts, including the development of more realistic cell-free reconstitutions, the application of single-molecule biophysics, and the elucidation of X-ray and high-resolution electron microscopy structures of the SNARE assembly and disassembly machineries 'in action'.

Journal
Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol
Volume
17
Issue
8
Pages
465-79
Date Published
2016 Aug
ISSN Number
1471-0080
Alternate Journal
Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol
PMCID
PMC5471617
PMID
27301672