Molecular machinery mediating vesicle budding, docking and fusion.
A general machinery buds and fuses transport vesicles which connect intracellular compartments with each other and allow communication with the extracellular environment. Cytoplasmic coat proteins deform membranes to bud vesicles and interact directly or indirectly with cargo molecules. Compartment-specific SNAREs on vesicles and target membranes dock vesicles and provide a scaffolding for the general fusion machinery to initiate lipid bilayer fusion.
Söllner
T H
TH
Cellular Biochemistry and Biophysics Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Rothman
J E
JE
D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D007425:Intracellular Membranes / Q000378:metabolism; D008561:Membrane Fusion; D015388:Organelles / Q000378:metabolism*