Editor's Summary

23 July 2009

Neuronal SNARE complex structure

Neurotransmission critically relies on synaptic vesicles fusing with the membrane of nerve cells to release their neurotransmitter content into the synaptic cleft, a process requiring the assembly of several members of the SNARE protein family. Stein et al. have now solved the X-ray crystallographic structure of an extended neuronal SNARE complex, which suggest that these proteins operate like nanomachines whose zippering all the way into the membranes triggers their fusion. Other SNAREs are likely to function as such robust and simple membrane fusion catalysts during most secretory or endocytosis events in eukaryotes.

Letter: Helical extension of the neuronal SNARE complex into the membrane

Alexander Stein, Gert Weber, Markus C. Wahl & Reinhard Jahn

doi:10.1038/nature08156

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