Sec17/Sec18 can support membrane fusion without help from completion of SNARE zippering

  1. Hongki Song
  2. Thomas L Torng
  3. Amy S Orr
  4. Axel T Brunger
  5. William T Wickner  Is a corresponding author
  1. Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, United States
  2. Stanford University, United States

Abstract

Membrane fusion requires R-, Qa-, Qb-, and Qc-family SNAREs that zipper into RQaQbQc coiled coils, driven by the sequestration of apolar amino acids. Zippering has been thought to provide all the force driving fusion. Sec17/aSNAP can form an oligomeric assembly with SNAREs with the Sec17 C-terminus bound to Sec18/NSF, the central region bound to SNAREs, and a crucial apolar loop near the N-terminus poised to insert into membranes. We now report that Sec17 and Sec18 will drive robust fusion without requiring zippering completion. Zippering-driven fusion is blocked by deleting the C-terminal quarter of any Q-SNARE domain or by replacing the apolar amino acids of the Qa-SNARE which face the center of the 4-SNARE coiled coils with polar residues. These blocks, singly or combined, are bypassed by Sec17 and Sec18, and SNARE-dependent fusion is restored without help from completing zippering.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for Figures 1, 2, 3 4, 5, and 6.

The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Hongki Song

    Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3761-5434
  2. Thomas L Torng

    Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2295-2777
  3. Amy S Orr

    Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Axel T Brunger

    Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    Axel T Brunger, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5121-2036
  5. William T Wickner

    Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
    For correspondence
    William.T.Wickner@dartmouth.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8431-0468

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R35GM118037)

  • William T Wickner

National Institutes of Health (R37MH63105)

  • Axel T Brunger

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2021, Song et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 1,582
    views
  • 261
    downloads
  • 26
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Hongki Song
  2. Thomas L Torng
  3. Amy S Orr
  4. Axel T Brunger
  5. William T Wickner
(2021)
Sec17/Sec18 can support membrane fusion without help from completion of SNARE zippering
eLife 10:e67578.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67578

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67578

Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Josep Rizo, Klaudia Jaczynska, Karolina P Stepien
    Insight

    Two proteins called Sec17 and Sec18 may have a larger role in membrane fusion than is commonly assumed in textbook models.

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Genetics and Genomics
    Kira Breunig, Xuifen Lei ... Luiz O Penalva
    Research Article

    RNA binding proteins (RBPs) containing intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are present in diverse molecular complexes where they function as dynamic regulators. Their characteristics promote liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and the formation of membraneless organelles such as stress granules and nucleoli. IDR-RBPs are particularly relevant in the nervous system and their dysfunction is associated with neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumor development. Serpine1 mRNA-binding protein 1 (SERBP1) is a unique member of this group, being mostly disordered and lacking canonical RNA-binding domains. We defined SERBP1’s interactome, uncovered novel roles in splicing, cell division and ribosomal biogenesis, and showed its participation in pathological stress granules and Tau aggregates in Alzheimer’s brains. SERBP1 preferentially interacts with other G-quadruplex (G4) binders, implicated in different stages of gene expression, suggesting that G4 binding is a critical component of SERBP1 function in different settings. Similarly, we identified important associations between SERBP1 and PARP1/polyADP-ribosylation (PARylation). SERBP1 interacts with PARP1 and its associated factors and influences PARylation. Moreover, protein complexes in which SERBP1 participates contain mostly PARylated proteins and PAR binders. Based on these results, we propose a feedback regulatory model in which SERBP1 influences PARP1 function and PARylation, while PARylation modulates SERBP1 functions and participation in regulatory complexes.