Campus Units
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
3-16-2012
Journal or Book Title
BMC Systems Biology
Volume
6
First Page
19
DOI
10.1186/1752-0509-6-19
Abstract
Background
Network motifs, recurring subnetwork patterns, provide significant insight into the biological networks which are believed to govern cellular processes.
Methods
We present a comparative network motif experimental approach, which helps to explain complex biological phenomena and increases the understanding of biological functions at the molecular level by exploring evolutionary design principles of network motifs.
Results
Using this framework to analyze the SM (Sec1/Munc18)-SNARE (N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor activating protein receptor) system in exocytic membrane fusion in yeast and neurons, we find that the SM-SNARE network motifs of yeast and neurons show distinct dynamical behaviors. We identify the closed binding mode of neuronal SM (Munc18-1) and SNARE (syntaxin-1) as the key factor leading to mechanistic divergence of membrane fusion systems in yeast and neurons. We also predict that it underlies the conflicting observations in SM overexpression experiments. Furthermore, hypothesis-driven lipid mixing assays validated the prediction.
Conclusion
Therefore this study provides a new method to solve the discrepancies and to generalize the functional role of SM proteins.
Rights
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright Owner
Xia et al
Copyright Date
2012
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Xia, Tian; Tong, Jiansong; Rathore, Shailendra S.; Gu, Xun; and Dickerson, Julie A., "Network motif comparison rationalizes Sec1/Munc18-SNARE regulation mechanism in exocytosis" (2012). Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications. 79.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ece_pubs/79
Included in
Agriculture Commons, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Bioinformatics Commons, Computational Biology Commons, Systems Biology Commons
Comments
This article is from BMC Systems Biology 6 (2012): 19, doi:10.1186/1752-0509-6-19, Posted with permission.