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Observation of a Membrane Fusion Intermediate Structure
Lin Yang,1Huey W. Huang2*
We report the observation of a phase of phospholipid that contains
a structure similar to the commonly postulated interbilayerstate that
is crucial to membrane fusion. The widely acceptedmodel for membrane
fusion suggests that there is an intermediatestate in which the two
contacting monolayers become continuousvia an hourglass-shaped
structure called a stalk. Many effortshave been made to estimate the
free energy for such a state inorder to understand the functionality
of membrane fusion proteinsand to define key parameters in energy
estimates. The observationof the stalk structure supports the stalk
hypothesis for membranefusion and enables the measurement of these
parameters experimentally.
1 National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven
National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice
University, Houston, TX 77251, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
hwhuang{at}rice.edu
