Consequently, the early endosomes would contain not only the SNAREs involved in homotypic fusion, but also SNAREs involved in fusion of the organelles with which they interact. plasma membrane, and they are involved in recycling of secretory and synaptic vesicles (20, 21). As a result, the 9-Dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III early endosomes would contain not only the SNAREs involved in homotypic fusion, but also SNAREs involved in fusion of the organelles with which they interact. Therefore, homotypic fusion of early endosomes is definitely suited like a model to investigate to which degree the SNAREs involved in this fusion step are differentiated from additional SNAREs. Homotypic fusion 9-Dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III of early endosomes is one of the best-characterized fusion reactions (22). Acknowledgement, tethering, and docking, the 1st methods in the reaction sequence, are orchestrated by the small GTPase Rab5, which recruits a variety of effector molecules (23C25). However, the 9-Dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III identity of the SNARE proteins responsible for early endosome fusion has not yet been unambiguously identified. Proteins involved in Rab5-effector complexes interact with syntaxin 13 (Qa), syntaxin 16 (Qa), and syntaxin 6 (Qc). Furthermore, antibodies directed against syntaxin 13 inhibit fusion (26). Reports about a practical involvement of syntaxin 6 are contradictory, however (27). Coimmunoprecipitation studies revealed an association between syntaxin 6, vti1a (Qb), and VAMP4 (R) and syntaxin 16 instead of syntaxin FGF22 13 (28). In another set of immunoprecipitation experiments, syntaxin 13 was found to be associated with synaptobrevin 2 (R) and SNAP-25 (Qbc) (29). Moreover, botulinum neurotoxin E, which selectively cleaves SNAP-25, has recently been reported to block early endosome fusion (29), whereas, in an earlier study, cleavage of cellubrevin and synaptobrevin by tetanus toxin experienced no effect (30). Results Characterization of an Assay for Homotypic Fusion of Early Endosomes. To measure homotypic fusion of early endosomes, we labeled two separate models of Personal computer12 cells for 5 min with dextrans (10-kDa molecular mass) conjugated to the dyes Alexa 488 and Alexa 594, respectively, as fluid phase markers. Postnuclear supernatants (PNSs) were combined and incubated for the changing times indicated, and the reaction was halted by chilling on snow. Fused endosomes were enriched by Nycodenz denseness gradient centrifugation and then adsorbed on coverslips by low-speed centrifugation (Fig. 6, which is definitely published as assisting information within the PNAS internet site), followed by image analysis (Fig. 1for details), binned in 100-nm classes, and plotted as percentage of total number (= 311 for each populace). fusion of early endosomes is known to become ATP-dependent, and several bright spots labeled with both dyes were visible in the presence of ATP (Fig. 1and shows the effects of the candidate early endosomal Q-SNAREs, including the two Qa-SNAREs syntaxin 13 and 16, the Qb-SNARE vti1a, and the Qc-SNARE syntaxin 6, either only or in various combinations. Inhibition was observed in all instances. However, syntaxin 13 was consistently more potent than syntaxin 16, and no additivity was observed. vti1a and syntaxin 6 caused partial inhibition, and a combination of vti1a, syntaxin 6, and syntaxin 13 almost abolished fusion. No such synergism was 9-Dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III observed with syntaxin 16, suggesting that syntaxin 16 does not interact functionally with vti1a and syntaxin 6. In contrast, the neuronal and late endosomal Q-SNAREs were largely ineffective in inhibiting fusion (Fig. 4 0.001). Endobrevin resulted in only a minor effect (14% inhibition, 0.05), whereas synaptobrevin, cellubrevin, Ti-VAMP, VAMP5, Ykt6, and Sec22 failed to elicit an inhibitory effect, despite some scatter in the results. Combining endobrevin and VAMP4 did not result in a higher block of fusion than that acquired with VAMP4 only (data not demonstrated). Fusion of Proteoliposomes Comprising SNAREs. The results described so far have established (and data not shown). Similarly, 9-Dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III liposomes transporting neuronal Q-SNAREs fused equally well with liposomes comprising either endobrevin or synaptobrevin (data not demonstrated). Second, we investigated to what degree fusion of Q-SNARE liposomes with VAMP4-comprising liposomes is definitely competed for by soluble VAMP4, synaptobrevin, and endobrevin. Again, all three R-SNAREs were capable of competing with fusion in a similar concentration range (Fig. 5 for 30 min. Cell-Free Fusion Assay. Reaction mixtures (50 l final volume) contained, as final concentrations, 4 mg/ml PNSs, 2 mg/ml cytosol, 11.25 mM Hepes at pH 7.0, 1.35 mM magnesium acetate, 0.18 mM DTT, 45 mM potassium acetate, as an ATP-regenerating system, 3.2 mM ATP, 26 mM creatine phosphate, and 0.132 mg creatine kinase (800 models/mg; Roche, Basel, Switzerland) or, as an ATP-depleting system, 5 l of hexokinase (1,500 models/ml dissolved in.