Fig. 4: SNARE-induced content mixing in different vesicles.
From: En route to dynamic life processes by SNARE-mediated fusion of polymer and hybrid membranes
a Content mixing was assessed via functional coupling between two enzymes of the bacterial respiratory chain: the proton pump bo3 oxidase (bo3) and the proton gradient consumer ATP synthase (AS). Each enzyme was co-reconstituted separately with either synaptobrevin (syb) or the ΔN complex (ΔN). Upon successful fusion, the gradient established upon activation of bo3 oxidase with DTT was used by ATP synthase for ATP production. ATP was converted to luminescence signal via the luciferase/luciferin reporter system (CLSII). b Comparison of ATP synthesis rates after SNARE-free or SNARE-mediated fusion of different vesicles indicated higher coupling efficiency in the presence of SNAREs. Each point corresponds to a single measurement. Also shown are mean values with standard deviations. *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001. The highest SNARE-mediated content mixing was achieved in polymersomes. c–e Intensity-based size distribution of different vesicles co-reconstituted with synaptobrevin (syb) + bo3 oxidase (bo3) or with the ΔN complex and ATP synthase (AS).
