Securing SNAREs for assembly

SNAREs in HIV-1 assembly

Viruses have a limited number of genes but a complex life cycle and have evolved to utilize numerous host factors to complete their replication. The assembly and budding process of enveloped viruses utilizes numerous cellular factors to facilitate transport from one membrane bound compartment to the other. The host SNARE proteins are widely involved in late stages of vesicular mediated transpor...

i-SNAREs

A new functional class of SNAREs, designated inhibitory SNAREs (i-SNAREs), is described here. An i-SNARE inhibits fusion by substituting for or binding to a subunit of a fusogenic SNAREpin to form a nonfusogenic complex. Golgi-localized SNAREs were tested for i-SNARE activity by adding them as a fifth SNARE together with four other SNAREs that mediate Golgi fusion reactions. A striking pattern ...

Securing Safe Plasma for Fractionation the Duty of any Country

SNAREs drum up calcium

SNAREs drum up calcium n page 195, Merz and Wickner show that when two intracellular vesicles fuse, the interaction of their SNARE proteins triggers a short-lived calcium release. The work provides the first clear connection between calcium release and the fusion cycle, and supports a model in which the pairing of SNAREs in trans coordinates the downstream signals that lead to vesicle fusion. P...

Counting the SNAREs needed for membrane fusion.

SNARE proteins mediate most membrane fusion reactions in eukaryotic cells, and are thereby vital for many functions, including synaptic transmission, cell growth, and cytokinesis. However, until recently it was still unclear how many of these proteins are required to catalyze membrane fusion in vivo. In a recent Science paper, Mohrmann et al. (2010) elegantly show that in chromaffin cells, thre...