Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Analysis of SNARE-mediated Membrane Fusion Using an Enzymatic Cell Fusion Assay
Published on: October 19, 2012
At the junction of SNARE and SM protein function
1Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, 300 Olsen Blvd., College Station, TX 77843-2128, USA. chave@tamu.edu
None:
Sec1/Munc18 (SM) proteins bind to and function with soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) at each vesicle fusion site in the cell. The purpose for these interactions is becoming clearer, as what had been interpreted as functional divergence between SM proteins acting at different vesicle trafficking steps, or in specialized cells, is giving way to more recent evidence for common functions among all SM proteins. What is emerging is a picture of SM proteins acting not merely as SNARE regulators, but also as central components of the membrane fusion apparatus. The available data suggest sequential models that describe how the soluble SM protein might first regulate SNARE complex assembly and then cooperate with SNAREs to stimulate membrane fusion.
Related Concept Videos
SNAREs and Membrane Fusion
SNAREs exist in pairs that symmetrically interact and catalyze the fusion of the lipid bilayers in vesicle and target organelle. v-SNARE in the vesicle membrane are single polypeptide chains that bind to a complementary t-SNARE, composed of 2...
Fusion of Secretory Vesicles with the Plasma Membrane
In 1993, Jim Rothman proposed that the antiparallel pairing of vesicular and transmembrane SNAREs, or...
Protein Translocation Machinery on the ER Membrane
Sec61 protein conducting channel
In eukaryotes, the translocon complex comprises a core heterotrimeric translocator channel called the Sec61 complex. This channel includes three transmembrane proteins, Sec61α, Sec61β, and Sec61γ, and is the largest subunit of the translocon complex.
Directing Proteins to the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
Cotranslational Protein Translocation
Sec61 channel partners for cotranslational translocation
During cotranslational translocation, the Sec61 channel partners with the signal recognition particle (SRP), the signal recognition particle receptor (SR), and the ribosomes to transport the nascent polypeptide chain...
Assembly of Signaling Complexes
Interaction domains in cell signaling
Interaction domains recognize exposed features of their binding partners containing post-translationally modified sequences,...

