Thomas H. Söllner

TL;DR: The existence of numerous SNARE-related proteins, each apparently specific for a single kind of vesicles or target membrane, indicates that NSF and SNAPs may be universal components of a vesicle fusion apparatus common to both constitutive and regulated fusion (including neurotransmitter release), in which the SNAREs may help to ensure vesICLE-to-target specificity.

TL;DR: Recombinant v- and t- SNARE proteins reconstituted into separate lipid bilayer vesicles assemble into SNAREpins-SNARE complexes linking two membranes, leading to spontaneous fusion of the docked membranes at physiological temperature.

TL;DR: It is reported that in the absence of SNAP and NSF, these three SNAREs form a stable complex that can also bind synaptotagmin, suggesting that synapttagmin operates as a "clamp" to prevent fusion from proceeding in the absent of a signal.

TL;DR: It is found that, to a marked degree, the pattern of membrane flow in the cell is encoded and recapitulated by its isolated SNARE proteins, as predicted by the SNARE hypothesis.

TL;DR: The surprising finding that docking complexes can contain many distinct species of SNAREs suggests that multimeric interactions are features of the fusion machinery, and may also improve the fidelity of vesicle targeting.