Membrane fusion by Drosophila atlastin does not require GTP hydrolysis

Abstract

The role of GTP hydrolysis in membrane fusion catalyzed by the atlastin (ATL) GTPase has long been debated. Crosby and Lee use a hydrolysis-deficient Drosophila ATL variant to show that membrane fusion occurs well before the hydrolysis of GTP, and that nucleotide hydrolysis is required for ATL subunit recycling.