Targeted mutations in a Ca2+-binding site of otoferlin, a transmembrane protein of synaptic vesicles defective in a recessive form of deafness, reveal its Ca2+ sensor role both for vesicle fusion and vesicle pool replenishment.
A unique form of regulation has been observed in the unfolded protein response of S. pombe, along with a novel mechanism of post-transcriptional mRNA processing.
A combination of advanced optical imaging and cryogenic electron microscopy has been used to explore membrane fusion in a synthetic system and provide new insights into neurotransmitter release.
Hantavirus spikes are related laterally by 2-fold Gc contacts that can be disulfide-linked and display a temperature-dependent dynamic behavior at neutral pH, exposing and masking the Gc fusion loops.
A few SNARE complexes suffice to fuse membranes, but many more are needed to dilate the nascent fusion pore by molecular crowding for efficient neurotransmitter or hormone release during exocytosis.
BRD9 provides the first actionable therapeutic target in synovial sarcoma tumours that is both biochemically and functionally linked to the SS18-SSX fusion protein which drives disease development.
Adjusting key parameters of the synaptic transmission at a single defined synapse of the visual circuit can affect properties of this circuit and animal behavior.
The mechanism of membrane-fusion catalysis in influenza viral infection of target cells is robust against the presence of a large fraction of non-productive viral fusion proteins.
A combination of an in vitro mitochondrial fusion assay with electron cryo-tomography (cryo-ET) reveals distinct steps and protein complexes during mitofusin-dependent fusion between adjacent mitochondrial outer membranes.
