Construction of novel hybrid biooligomers as artificial SNAREs to dissect the mechanism of SNAREs in membrane docking and fusion

Synthetically generated SNARE analogs are used to examine the mechanism of the neuronal SNARE mediated fusion process. The recognition domain of the SNARE motif, the transmembrane domains, and the linker region will be specifically modified. Docking/hemifusion and fusion processes can be individually addressed using our SNARE analogs. The influence of membranes varying in lipid composition will be investigated with respect to the SNARE analog-mediated fusion processes.