ArticleBiophysical journal2002
Stalk model of membrane fusion: solution of energy crisis.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 172 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
172 citing papers in PubMed.
- Energetics of stalk intermediates elucidated from hydrostatic pressure effects on membrane fusion.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- From Molecular Insight to Mesoscale Membrane Remodeling: Curvature Generation by Arginine-Rich Cell-Penetrating Peptides.Small methods · 2026Article
- Article
- Biophysical Considerations in Cell Fusion.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- The Interplay of Lipids and Peptides in Membrane Merger.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Accelerated Ostwald Ripening by Chemical Activity.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Quantifying the Activation Barrier for Phospholipid Monolayer Fusion Governing Lipid Droplet Coalescence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Topology and kinetic pathways of colloidosome assembly and disassembly.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Article
- Lipid demixing reduces energy barriers for high-curvature vesicle budding.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Viral fusion proteins of classes II and III recognize and reorganize complex biological membranes.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Toxic Effects of Butanol in the Plane of the Cell Membrane.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 FP1 Destabilizes Lipid Membranes and Facilitates Pore Formation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Boosting Lipofection Efficiency Through Enhanced Membrane Fusion Mechanisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Feasibility Study for the Use of Gene Electrotransfer and Cell Electrofusion as a Single-Step Technique for the Generation of Activated Cancer Cell Vaccines.The Journal of membrane biology · 2024Article
- Fission of double-membrane tubes under tension.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Transient pores in hemifusion diaphragms.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Membrane fission via transmembrane contact.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mitochondrial membrane model: Lipids, elastic properties, and the changing curvature of cardiolipin.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Article
112 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Membrane fusion proceeds via formation of intermediate nonbilayer structures. The stalk model of fusion intermediate is commonly recognized to account for the major phenomenology of the fusion process. However, in its current form, the stalk model poses a challenge. On one hand, it is able to describe qualitatively the modulation of the fusion reaction by the lipid composition of the membranes. On the other, it predicts very large values of the stalk energy, so that the related energy barrier for fusion cannot be overcome by membranes within a biologically reasonable span of time. We suggest a new structure for the fusion stalk, which resolves the energy crisis of the model. Our approach is based on a combined deformation of the stalk membrane including bending of the membrane surface and tilt of the hydrocarbon chains of lipid molecules. We demonstrate that the energy of the fusion stalk is a few times smaller than those predicted previously and the stalks are feasible in real systems. We account quantitatively for the experimental results on dependence of the fusion reaction on the lipid composition of different membrane monolayers. We analyze the dependence of the stalk energy on the distance between the fusing membranes and provide the experimentally testable predictions for the structural features of the stalk intermediates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.