Role of t-SNARE1 in exocytosis of dopaminergic neurons derived from SH-SY5Y cells

• Grant number: 16/24629-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: March 01, 2017
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biophysics - Cellular Biophysics
• Principal Investigator: Alexander Henning Ulrich
• Grantee: Arquimedes Cheffer
• Supervisor: Manfred Lindau
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Max Planck Society, Gottingen, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/02293-5 - Aptamers inhibiting the protein CD73 as possible antitumoral agents, BP.PD

Abstract

Membranous vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane to release their contents outside the cell, in a process called exocytosis. This process is essential in several different biological events, such as cell division, insertion of new proteins into the plasma membrane and release of hormones and neurotransmitters. The SNARE complex plays a major role in exocytosis and is composed of the proteins synaptobrevin-2, syntaxin-1, and SNAP-25 in mammalian neurons and neuroendocrine cells. Recently, t-SNARE1 emerged in the literature due to associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the gene T-SNARE1 with schizophrenia. However, its functions remain unknown. Phylogenetic analysis based on sequence similarity indicates that t-SNARE1 is evolutionarily related to syntaxins and contains a SNARE domain, suggesting that the protein may bind SNARE proteins and have SNAP receptor activity, therefore, participating in exocytosis. Here, we propose to investigate the functions of t-SNARE1 and test the hypothesis that it is involved in the exocytosis process, using molecular biology and electrophysiological techniques. (AU)