ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America1990
Tension in secretory granule membranes causes extensive membrane transfer through the exocytotic fusion pore.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1990. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 63 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 149 citations in OpenAlex.
- Friction-driven scission: How nonlocal mechanisms contribute to membrane fission across domains of life.Science advances · 2026Review
- Membrane Merger Dynamics in Exocytosis and Endocytosis.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- CaBMC biology · 2025Article
- Coordination of force-generating actin-based modules stabilizes and remodels membranes in vivo.The Journal of cell biology · 2024Article
- Membrane transformations of fusion and budding.Nature communications · 2024Review
- Illuminating membrane structural dynamics of fusion and endocytosis with advanced light imaging techniques.Biochemical Society transactions · 2022Review
- Fusion Pore Expansion and Contraction during Catecholamine Release from Endocrine Cells.Biophysical journal · 2020Article
- Vesicle Shrinking and Enlargement Play Opposing Roles in the Release of Exocytotic Contents.Cell reports · 2020Article
- Visualization of expanding fusion pores in secretory cells.The Journal of general physiology · 2018Review
- The fusion pore, 60 years after the first cartoon.FEBS letters · 2018Review
- Toward a unified picture of the exocytotic fusion pore.FEBS letters · 2018Review
- The Actomyosin Cytoskeleton Drives Micron-Scale Membrane Remodeling In Vivo Via the Generation of Mechanical Forces to Balance Membrane Tension Gradients.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2018Review
- Fusion pores and their control of neurotransmitter and hormone release.The Journal of general physiology · 2017Review
- Cholesterol Alters the Dynamics of Release in Protein Independent Cell Models for Exocytosis.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Cholesterol Increases the Openness of SNARE-Mediated Flickering Fusion Pores.Biophysical journal · 2016Article
- Synaptobrevin transmembrane domain influences exocytosis by perturbing vesicle membrane curvature.Biophysical journal · 2015Article
- Cdc42 controls the dilation of the exocytotic fusion pore by regulating membrane tension.Molecular biology of the cell · 2014Article
- A new role for myosin II in vesicle fission.PloS one · 2014Article
- Mechanisms of granule membrane recapture following exocytosis in intact mast cells.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2013Article
- Multiple roles for the actin cytoskeleton during regulated exocytosis.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2013Review
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
For fusion to occur the repulsive forces between two interacting phospholipid bilayers must be reduced. In model systems, this can be achieved by increasing the surface tension of at least one of the membranes. However, there has so far been no evidence that the secretory granule membrane is under tension. We have been studying exocytosis by using the patch-clamp technique to measure the surface area of the plasma membrane of degranulating mast cells. When a secretory granule fuses with the plasma membrane there is a step increase in the cell surface area. Some fusion events are reversible, in which case we have found that the backstep is larger than the initial step, indicating that there is a net decrease in the area of the plasma membrane. The decrease has the following properties: (i) the magnitude is strongly dependent on the lifetime of the fusion event and can be extensive, representing as much as 40% of the initial granule surface area; (ii) the rate of decrease is independent of granule size; and (iii) the decrease is not dependent on swelling of the secretory granule matrix. We conclude that the granule membrane is under tension and that this tension causes a net transfer of membrane from the plasma membrane to the secretory granule, while they are connected by the fusion pore. The high membrane tension in the secretory granule may be the critical stress necessary for bringing about exocytotic fusion.
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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.