Reconstituted Snare-Mediated Fusion: Towards a Mechanistic Understanding

Abstract

The physical boundaries of cells and their intracellular compartments are lipid bilayers, large supramolecular assemblies consisting primarily of amphiphilic lipids (figure 1.1). In order for the cell and its compartments to remain separable entities, lipid bilayers or lipid membranes must preserve both their colloidal and structural stability to prevent the indiscriminate exchange of mass and biomolecules. Membrane fusion is the merging of two lipid bilayers into a new membrane, and from a colloidal perspective can be viewed as a type of lipid bilayer destabilization.