SNAREs from C. elegans will form stable complexes similar to vertebrate neuronal SNARES.

The lab also does a significant amout of protein expresssion and purification of C. elegans synaptic proteins in E. coli both for the purpose of making immunological reagents and for biochemical studies. Here, we made mixed-species SNARE complexes using rat SNAP-25, C. elegans synaptobrevin (SNB-1), and syntaxin (UNC-64). Purified GST (Lanes 1 and 2) or GST-UNC-64 (Lanes 3-6) was mixed with His6-SNAP-25, and His-SNB-1 (wild type in lanes 3 and 4, and TeTxLC cleavage-resistant in lanes 5 and 6), incubated at 4° C overnight, then incubted with GST beads. The beads were then washed extensively. Half of each sample was heated to 100° C for 5 minutes (lanes 1, 3, 5) and then all samples were run of an 13.5 % SDS-PAGE gel. Complex was detectable as a 100 kD band (Lanes 4 and 6). Heating disrupted the complex (lanes 3 and 5). No complex was formed in absence of syntaxin (Lanes 1 and 2). Biochemistry of G. Hadwiger.