Credit: Mol. Biol. Cell March 15, 2017 vol. 28 no. 6 707-711
Shared and distinct features of membrane fusion from yeast to humans, and vacuole (lysosome) to synapse.
Figure A shows vacuole fusion in Baker’s yeast, where components of the SNARE complex that initiate fusion are represented as R (red), Qc (green), Qb (blue), and Qa (orange) and the proteins that are recruited to the complex to complete fusion are shown in light blue (HOPS), yellow (Sec 17) and purple (Ypt7). Figure B shows the more complex situation in human synaptic vesicle fusion, where the components of the SNARE complex are represented as red (synaptobrevin), green (SNAP-25) and yellow (syntaxin-1), and the additional proteins that may be recruited to complete fusion include those in blue (synaptotagmin-1), lavender (Munc18-1) and pink (Munc13-1).