Arabidopsis HAP2/GCS1 is a gamete fusion protein homologous to somatic and viral fusogens

Cell-cell fusion is inherent to any form of sexual reproduction. Loss of HAPLESS 2/GENERATIVE CELL SPECIFIC 1 (HAP2/GCS1) proteins results in gamete fusion failure in different organisms but their exact role is unclear. Here we show that Arabidopsis HAP2/GCS1 expression in mammalian cells is sufficient to promote cell-cell fusion. Hemifusion and complete fusion depend on HAP2/GCS1 presence in both fusing cells. Furthermore, expression of HAP2 on the surface of pseudotyped vesicular stomatitis virus and on the target cells results in HAP2-dependent virus-cell fusion. This bilateral requirement can be bypassed by replacing the plant gene with C. elegans EFF-1 somatic cell fusogen in one of the fusing cells or the virus, indicating that HAP2/GCS1 and EFF-1 share a similar fusion mechanism. Structural modeling of the HAP2/GCS1 protein family predicts that they are homologous to EFF-1 and class II fusion proteins from enveloped viruses (e.g. dengue and Zika viruses). We name this superfamily FUSEXINS: FUSion proteins essential for sexual reproduction and EXoplasmic merger of plasma membranes. Thus, Fusexins unify the origin and evolution of sexual reproduction, enveloped virus entry into cells and somatic cell fusion.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  bioRxiv

• Publication date

  2016-12-31

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1083/jcb.201610093PMID 28137780PMCID 5350521
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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