Functionally distinct SNARE motifs of SNAP25 cooperate in SNARE assembly and membrane fusion.

Intracellular membrane traffic involves controlled membrane fission and fusion and is essential for eukaryotic cell homeostasis. Most intracellular fusion is facilitated by Soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins, which catalyze membrane merging by assembly of a coiled helical bundle of four 60- to 70-residue "SNARE motifs." Perhaps no intracellular fusion reaction is as tightly regulated as that at the neuronal synapse, mediated by the synaptic vesicle SNARE Synaptobrevin-2 and the presynaptic plasma membrane SNAREs Syntaxin-1a and SNAP25.