Abstract
Direct observations of membrane structural changes accompanying fusion events are invaluable to the understanding of membrane fusion mechanisms. In the ideal sense, sequences of morphological changes might be correlated with complementary data to assign kinetic and structure-function relationships during the fusion event. We have initiated this study by preserving the ultrastructural changes in the human erythrocyte membrane during electrofusion by rapid freeze quenching, followed by observation using freeze-fracture electron microscopy (EM). To provide an alternative means of monitoring the same events in a population of cells, we have used fluorescence contents-mixing fusion assays. In this chapter, we discuss how these techniques may be used to infer information regarding the mechanism(s) of electrofusion.
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© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Stenger, D.A., Hui, S.W. (1989). Electrofusion Kinetics. In: Neumann, E., Sowers, A.E., Jordan, C.A. (eds) Electroporation and Electrofusion in Cell Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2528-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2528-2_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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