ROUX , Aurélien

During membrane fission, the GTPase dynamin forms helical assemblies at the neck of membrane buds. Although it has been proposed that fission results from the constriction of the dynamin helix, new work by Bashkirov et al. (2008) and Pucadyil and Schmid (2008) unexpectedly shows that helix disassembly is also necessary for membrane fission.

Abstract ESCRT-III proteins assemble into ubiquitous membrane-remodeling polymers during many cellular processes. Here we describe the structure of helical membrane tubes that are scaffolded by bundled ESCRT-III filaments. Cryo-ET reveals how the shape of the helical membrane tube arises from the assembly of two distinct bundles of helical...