Lentz B R, Malinin V, Haque M E, Evans K
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, CB#7260, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2000 Oct;10(5):607-15. doi: 10.1016/s0959-440x(00)00138-x.
Protein machines and lipid bilayers both play central roles in cell membrane fusion, a process crucial to life. Recent results provide clues to how both components function in fusion. Recent observations suggest a common mechanism by which very different fusion machines (from lipid-enveloped viruses and synaptic vesicles) may function to produce compartment-joining pores. This mechanism presumes that fusion proteins act as machines that use stored conformational energy to assemble closely juxtaposed lipid bilayers, bend these to form fusion-competent structures, stabilize unfavorable lipid structures and destabilize a committed intermediate to drive fusion pore formation.
蛋白质机器和脂质双层在细胞膜融合过程中都起着核心作用，而细胞膜融合是生命至关重要的一个过程。近期的研究结果为这两种成分在融合过程中的作用方式提供了线索。最近的观察表明，一种非常不同的融合机器（来自脂质包膜病毒和突触小泡）可能通过一种共同机制发挥作用，以产生连接隔室的孔。这种机制假定融合蛋白起到机器的作用，利用储存的构象能量来组装紧密并列的脂质双层，将其弯曲形成具有融合能力的结构，稳定不利的脂质结构，并使一个特定的中间体不稳定以驱动融合孔的形成。
