Membrane trafficking between organelles in eukaryotic cells is mediated by vesicular intermediates that bud from one compartment and fuse with a target compartment. Trafficking can be envisaged as sequential vesicle budding, transport, tethering and fusion reactions. SNARE proteins play an essential role in most membrane fusion reactions in eukaryotic cells, but additional factors provide the specificity of SNARE complex formation that maintains organelle identity (1), making studies of SNARE-binding proteins important. SNAREs regulate tether recruitment (2), so they may even contribute to the fidelity of membrane trafficking or enhance coordination between different trafficking steps. The bestestablished role for SNAREs is in membrane fusion, and involves formation of a four-helix bundle (or SNAREpin) between the C-terminal coiled-coil (the SNARE motif) of SNAREs on opposing membranes, bringing the two membranes into close proximity for fusion. The SNAREs are classified into two main groups based on the presence of a glutamine (Q SNAREs or t-SNAREs) or an arginine (R SNAREs or v-SNAREs) in the center of the SNARE motif (3), and all functional SNARE complexes are composed of three Q SNAREs (Qa, Qb and Qc) and one R SNARE.Many, if not all, Qa SNAREs contain a three-helix bundle at the N-terminus, called the Habc domain, which appears to have disparate functions in different SNAREs. Habc domains can regulate SNARE complex formation by intramolecular interactions with the SNARE motif (the 'closed conformation'), or can function to recruit accessory factors required for vesicle targeting, tethering or other functions. Sec1/Munc18 (SM) proteins are important binding partners of SNAREs that function at many stages of vesicle trafficking and fusion (reviewed in 4). In the case of the exocytic Qa SNARE Syntaxin 1A (Stx1A), the SM protein Munc18-1 interacts with Stx1A via at least three confirmed binding modes; Munc18-1 can bind the 'closed conformation' of Stx1A, to the N-terminus of Stx1A, and also with the assembled SNARE complex in an 'open conformation' (where the Habc domain does not interact with the SNARE motif). There is uncertainty about the exact nature of these interaction modes, with suggestions that some of the interactions involve low-affinity binding of the SM protein to a peptide that is N-terminal of the Stx1A Habc domain (5), whereas others have found that binding to the N-terminal peptide is not required for the closed conformation interaction (5). On the other hand, the interaction of the yeast SM protein Vps45p with the yeast orthologue of Stx16, Tlg2p, is largely independent of the Habc domain. Instead, Vps45p binds to an N-terminal peptide of Tlg2p, or alternatively, it can bind to the Tlg2p-SNARE complex (6).The Qc SNARE Stx6 lacks the peptide that is N-terminal to the Habc domain, and the Habc domain displays no detectable binding to the SNARE motif (7). However, it is becoming clearer that the Habc domains of the 'light chain' Qb and Qc SNARES are important for interaction with 688 www.traffic.dk