Article
- The EMBO Journal (2005) 24, 2980 - 2988
- doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7600767
Published online: 4 August 2005
Subject Categories:
Liposome reconstitution of a minimal protein-mediated membrane fusion machine
Deniz Top1, Roberto de Antueno1, Jayme Salsman1, Jennifer Corcoran1,a, Jamie Mader2, David Hoskin1,2, Ahmed Touhami3, Manfred H Jericho3 and Roy Duncan1
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Department of Pathology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Department of Physics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Correspondence to:
Roy Duncan, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 1X5. Tel.: +1 902 494 6770; Fax: +1 902 494 5125; E-mail: roy.duncan@dal.ca
aPresent address: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Heritage Medical Research Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2S2
Received 10 March 2005; Accepted 13 July 2005
Abstract
Biological membrane fusion is dependent on protein catalysts to mediate localized restructuring of lipid bilayers. A central theme in current models of protein-mediated membrane fusion involves the sequential refolding of complex homomeric or heteromeric protein fusion machines. The structural features of a new family of fusion-associated small transmembrane (FAST) proteins appear incompatible with existing models of membrane fusion protein function. While the FAST proteins function to induce efficient cell–cell fusion when expressed in transfected cells, it was unclear whether they function on their own to mediate membrane fusion or are dependent on cellular protein cofactors. Using proteoliposomes containing the purified p14 FAST protein of reptilian reovirus, we now show via liposome–cell and liposome–liposome fusion assays that p14 is both necessary and sufficient for membrane fusion. Stoichiometric and kinetic analyses suggest that the relative efficiency of p14-mediated membrane fusion rivals that of the more complex cellular and viral fusion proteins, making the FAST proteins the simplest known membrane fusion machines.
Keywords:
- FAST proteins,
- fusion proteins,
- liposomes,
- membrane fusion,
- reovirus
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