Cellular membrane fusion is thought to proceed through intermediates including docking of apposed lipid bilayers, merging of proximal leaflets to form a hemifusion diaphragm, and fusion pore opening. A membrane-bridging four-helix complex of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) mediates fusion. However, how assembly of the SNARE complex generates docki...

Lipids and proteins are organized in cellular membranes in clusters, often called 'lipid rafts'. Although raft-constituent ordered lipid domains are thought to be energetically unfavourable for membrane fusion, rafts have long been implicated in many biological fusion processes. For the case of HIV gp41-mediated membrane fusion, this apparent contradiction can be resolved by recognizing that th...

The membrane-anchored atlastin GTPase couples nucleotide hydrolysis to the catalysis of homotypic membrane fusion to form a branched endoplasmic reticulum network. Trans dimerization between atlastins anchored in opposing membranes, accompanied by a cross-over conformational change, is thought to draw the membranes together for fusion. Previous studies on the conformational coupling of atlastin...

In the neuron, early neurotransmitters are released through the fusion pore prior to the complete vesicle fusion. It has been thought that the fusion pore is a gap junction-like structure made of transmembrane domains (TMDs) of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins. However, evidence has accumulated that lipid mixing occurs prior to the neurotran...

the fusion of medical images is very useful for clinical application. generally, the pet image indicates the function of tissue and the mri image shows the anatomy of tissue. in this article we fused mri and pet images and the purpose is adding structural information from mri to pet image. the images decomposed with curvelet transform, and then two images fused with applying fusion rules. we us...

The entry of enveloped viruses into host cells is preceded by membrane fusion, which in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is thought to be mediated by the refolding of glycoprotein B (gB) from a prefusion to a postfusion state. In our current studies, we characterized a gB C-terminal tail domain (CTD) mutant truncated at amino acid 843 (gB843). This truncation mutant is hyperfusogenic as monitored by sy...

Limited research has been carried out with respect to relationships among how individuals relate to thoughts and levels of cognitive fusion, experiential avoidance, psychological distress and mindfulness. Recent third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) use techniques that focus less on changing the content of thoughts, and place more emphasis on ...