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The Sea Urchin Egg and Cortical Vesicles as Model Systems to Dissect the Fast, Ca2+-Triggered Steps of Regulated Exocytosis

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Exocytosis Methods

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 83))

Abstract

Exocytosis is a fundamental process utilized by all eukaryotic organisms; this elegantly efficient process mediates such diverse functions as fertilization, synaptic transmission, and wound healing. Membrane fusion, the defining step of this process, has been well conserved through evolution. However, the mechanisms defining the priming, docking, and merger of two apposed native bilayer membranes have not been fully elucidated. Sea urchin cortical vesicles are locked at a stage just prior to Ca2+-triggered membrane fusion and are thus an ideal system for fully defining the mechanisms underlying this process. Here we describe detailed methods to isolate these native secretory vesicles, monitor the fusion process, assess the minimal essential biochemical components, and identify their ultrastructural interactions that define the triggered exocytotic pathway.

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Acknowledgements

P.S.A. would like to thank the UWS School of Medicine for scholarship funding. EPW would like to thank Bellberry Limited for their donation to the UWS School of Medicine that provided a postdoctoral fellowship. J.R.C. acknowledges the support of the UWS School of Medicine and an anonymous private Australian foundation, as well as past support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research that made much of this work possible. The introduction was largely reproduced from a text box that appeared in one of our recent publications [30], and was reproduced here with the permission of the publisher (Elsevier).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Physiology, Molecular Medicine Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Penrith South DC, NSW, Australia

    Prabhodh S. Abbineni, Elise P. Wright, Murray C. Killingsworth, Chandra S. Malladi & Jens R. Coorssen

  2. Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Tatiana P. Rogasevskaia

  3. Electron Microscopy Laboratory, NSW Health Pathology, Liverpool BC, NSW, Australia

    Murray C. Killingsworth

Authors
  1. Prabhodh S. Abbineni
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  2. Elise P. Wright
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  3. Tatiana P. Rogasevskaia
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  4. Murray C. Killingsworth
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  5. Chandra S. Malladi
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  6. Jens R. Coorssen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Peter Thorn

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Abbineni, P.S., Wright, E.P., Rogasevskaia, T.P., Killingsworth, M.C., Malladi, C.S., Coorssen, J.R. (2014). The Sea Urchin Egg and Cortical Vesicles as Model Systems to Dissect the Fast, Ca2+-Triggered Steps of Regulated Exocytosis. In: Thorn, P. (eds) Exocytosis Methods. Neuromethods, vol 83. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-676-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-676-4_11

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-62703-675-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-62703-676-4

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