Reconstitution of vesicle fusions occurring in endocytosis with a cell-free system.

We have used defined subcellular fractions to reconstitute in a cell-free system vesicle fusions occurring in the endocytic pathway. The endosomal fractions were prepared by immuno-isolation using as antigen an epitope located on a foreign protein, the transmembrane glycoprotein G (G-protein) of vesicular stomatitis virus. The G-protein was first implanted in the cell plasma membrane and subsequently endocytosed for 15 to 30 min at 37 degrees C. The endosomal fractions were immuno-isolated on a solid support using as antigen the cytoplasmic domain of the G-protein in combination with a specific monoclonal antibody. For comparative studies the plasma membrane was immuno-isolated from cells in the absence of G internalization with a monoclonal antibody against the exoplasmic domain of the G-protein. The immuno-isolated endosomal vesicles contained 70% of horseradish peroxidase internalized in the endosome fluid phase, exhibited an acidic luminal pH as shown by acridine orange fluorescence and differed in their protein composition from the immuno-isolated plasma membrane fraction. The fusion of endocytic vesicles originating from different stages of the pathway was studied in a cell-free assay using both a bio-chemical and a morphological detection system. These well defined endosomal vesicles were immuno-isolated with the G-protein on the solid support and provided the recipient compartment of the fusion (acceptor). They were mixed with a post-nuclear supernatant containing endosomes loaded with exogenous lactoperoxidase (donor) at 37 degrees C. Fusion delivered the donor peroxidase to the lumen of acceptor vesicles permitting fusion-specific iodination of the G-protein itself. The fusion of vesicles required ATP and was detected only with an endosomal fraction prepared after internalization of the G-protein for 15 min at 37 degrees C but not with a plasma membrane or with an endosomal fraction prepared after 30 min G-protein internalization.