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2015 ; 479-480
(ä): 498-507
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Viral membrane fusion
#MMPMID25866377
Harrison SC
Virology
2015[May]; 479-480
(ä): 498-507
PMID25866377
show ga
Membrane fusion is an essential step when enveloped viruses enter cells. Lipid
bilayer fusion requires catalysis to overcome a high kinetic barrier; viral
fusion proteins are the agents that fulfill this catalytic function. Despite a
variety of molecular architectures, these proteins facilitate fusion by
essentially the same generic mechanism. Stimulated by a signal associated with
arrival at the cell to be infected (e.g., receptor or co-receptor binding, proton
binding in an endosome), they undergo a series of conformational changes. A
hydrophobic segment (a "fusion loop" or "fusion peptide") engages the target-cell
membrane and collapse of the bridging intermediate thus formed draws the two
membranes (virus and cell) together. We know of three structural classes for
viral fusion proteins. Structures for both pre- and postfusion conformations of
illustrate the beginning and end points of a process that can be probed by
single-virion measurements of fusion kinetics.