Dynamin is a large GTPase essential for various intracellular processes such as synaptic vesicle recycling, caveolae internalization and trafficking into and out of the Golgi. It is also involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis, and is believed to assemble at the necks of clathrin-coated pits and assist in pinching vesicles from the plasma membrane upon GTP binding and hydrolysis.

Purified recombinant dynamin self-assembles into rings and spirals in low salt conditions [1]. A dynamin mutant lacking the c-terminal proline rich domain (APRD) also assembles into rings and spirals, however unlike wild type dynamin APRD constricts in the presence of GTP analogous such as GMP-PCP [2] or GTPγS. to explore differences in the behavior of the wild type and mutant dynamin we dialyzed them into different salt solutions containing various types of nucleotides and studied their assembly over time using negative staining and cryo-TEM.