ArticleBiophysical journal2002
Lipid intermediates in membrane fusion: formation, structure, and decay of hemifusion diaphragm.
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 117 papers.
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Who cites it
117 citing papers in PubMed, 289 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hemifusomes and proteolipid nanodroplets: a critical synthesis of an emerging model for endosomal membrane remodeling.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- Devising a divisome for synthetic cells.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2026Review
- pH-Sensitive Amino Lipid-Driven Pore Formation Enables Endosomal Escape of Lipid Nanoparticles.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Transmembrane domains of fusion proteins promote stalk formation by inducing membrane disorder.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- The Interplay of Lipids and Peptides in Membrane Merger.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- How doesScience advances · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 FP1 Destabilizes Lipid Membranes and Facilitates Pore Formation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Unleashing virus structural biology: Probing protein and membrane intermediates in the dynamic process of membrane fusion.QRB discovery · 2025Review
- Exploring the influence of anionic lipids in the host cell membrane on viral fusion.Biochemical Society transactions · 2024Review
- Boosting Lipofection Efficiency Through Enhanced Membrane Fusion Mechanisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Fission of double-membrane tubes under tension.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Transient pores in hemifusion diaphragms.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Triacylglycerol-droplet-induced bilayer spontaneous curvature in giant unilamellar vesicles.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Membrane fission via transmembrane contact.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- DNA-Programmed Lipid Nanoreactors for Synthesis of Carbohydrate Mimetics by Fusion of Aqueous Sub-attoliter Compartments.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2023Article
- Model for ring closure in ER tubular network dynamics.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- The Ebola virus VP40 matrix layer undergoes endosomal disassembly essential for membrane fusion.The EMBO journal · 2023Article
- High curvature promotes fusion of lipid membranes: Predictions from continuum elastic theory.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Potential of siRNA-Bearing Subtilosomes in the Treatment of Diethylnitrosamine-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
57 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Lipid bilayer fusion is thought to involve formation of a local hemifusion connection, referred to as a fusion stalk. The subsequent fusion stages leading to the opening of a fusion pore remain unknown. The earliest fusion pore could represent a bilayer connection between the membranes and could be formed directly from the stalk. Alternatively, fusion pore can form in a single bilayer, referred to as hemifusion diaphragm (HD), generated by stalk expansion. To analyze the plausibility of stalk expansion, we studied the pathway of hemifusion theoretically, using a recently developed elastic model. We show that the stalk has a tendency to expand into an HD for lipids with sufficiently negative spontaneous splay, (~)J(s)< 0. For different experimentally relevant membrane configurations we find two characteristic values of the spontaneous splay. (~)J*(s) and (~)J**(s), determining HD dimension. The HD is predicted to have a finite equilibrium radius provided that the spontaneous splay is in the range (~)J**(s)< (~)J(s)<(~)J*(s), and to expand infinitely for (~)J(s)<(~)J**(s). In the case of common lipids, which do not fuse spontaneously, an HD forms only under action of an external force pulling the diaphragm rim apart. We calculate the dependence of the HD radius on this force. To address the mechanism of fusion pore formation, we analyze the distribution of the lateral tension emerging in the HD due to the establishment of lateral equilibrium between the deformed and relaxed portions of lipid monolayers. We show that this tension concentrates along the HD rim and reaches high values sufficient to rupture the bilayer and form the fusion pore. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that transition from a hemifusion to a fusion pore involves radial expansion of the stalk.
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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.