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Cellubrevin is a ubiquitous tetanus-toxin substrate homologous to a putative synaptic vesicle fusion protein

Nature volume 364, pages 346–349 (1993)Cite this article

Abstract

TETANUS toxin inhibits neurotransmitter release by selectively blocking fusion of synaptic vesicles1,2. Recently tetanus toxin was shown to proteolytically degrade synaptobrevin II (also named VAMP-2), a synaptic vesicle-specific protein3,4, in vitro and in nerve terminals5,6. As targets of tetanus toxin, synaptobrevins probably function in the exocytotic fusion of synaptic vesicles. Here we describe a new synaptobrevin homologue, cellubrevin, that is present in all cells and tissues tested and demonstrate that it is a membrane trafficking protein of a constitutively recycling pathway. Like synaptobrevin II, cellubrevin is proteolysed by tetanus toxin light chain in vitro and after transfection. Our results suggest that constitutive and regulated vesicular pathways use homologous proteins for membrane trafficking, probably for membrane fusion at the plasma membrane, indicating a greater mechanistic and evolutionary similarity between these pathways than previously thought.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, 75235, USA

    Harvey T. McMahon, Yuri A. Ushkaryov & Thomas C. Südhof

  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Departments of Pharmacology and Cell Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06510, USA

    Lambert Edelmann, Egenhard Link & Reinhard Jahn

  3. Federal Research Center for Virus Diseases of Animals, 7400, Tubingen, Germany

    Thomas Binz & Heiner Niemann

Authors
  1. Harvey T. McMahon
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  2. Yuri A. Ushkaryov
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  3. Lambert Edelmann
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  4. Thomas Binz
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  5. Heiner Niemann
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  6. Reinhard Jahn
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  7. Thomas C. Südhof
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McMahon, H., Ushkaryov, Y., Edelmann, L. et al. Cellubrevin is a ubiquitous tetanus-toxin substrate homologous to a putative synaptic vesicle fusion protein. Nature 364, 346–349 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/364346a0

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