ArticleNature chemical biology2020
Plasma membranes are asymmetric in lipid unsaturation, packing and protein shape.
Article in Nature chemical biology, 2020. 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 398 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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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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.
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Who cites it
398 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 753 citations in OpenAlex.
- Expanding the spectrum of ATP8A2 mutations: a new splicing variant and systematic review of CAMRQ4 syndrome.Molecular biology reports · 2025Pooled it
- Lipid flip-flop in biological membranes: through the lens of TMEM16F.Physiological reviews · 2027Review
- Cell surface remodeling caused by the loss of the flippase subunit TMEM30A in immune cells.Journal of cell science · 2026Article
- Recent advances in understanding the regulatory mechanisms of P4-ATPase lipid flippases.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Mammalian MemPrep establishes the lipid composition of ER membranes in HEK293T cells.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Does Complexation of Plasma Membrane Cholesterol with Phospholipids Determine its Transbilayer Distribution?The Journal of membrane biology · 2026Article
- Quantification of lipid sorting during clathrin-mediated endocytosis.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Inside the membrane: a closer look using elastic scattering techniques and friends.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2026Review
- Precisely Engineering Biomimetic Nanoparticles via Controlled Cell Membrane Coating.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Review
- Molecular Determinants of Receptor-Specific Membrane Interactions in EphA1 and EphA2 from Coarse-Grained Simulations.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2026Article
- Plasma membrane order maps functional diversity in immune cells.Nature chemical biology · 2026Article
- Methods for the establishment of enzymatic mechanisms - from QM to ML.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Predicting membrane protein localization by deep learning on structure and chemistry.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2026Article
- Molecular mechanisms of Kir channel gating.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Membrane-Traversing Peptides: Mechanistic Landscapes, Assays, and Applications.Chemical reviews · 2026Review
- Review
- Fluorescence-Gated Flow Cytometry Approach for Measuring Lipid Flippase Activity in Mammalian Cells.The Journal of membrane biology · 2026Article
- Structure and mechanism of human sphingosine-1-phosphate transporter MFSD2B.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Erythrocyte Membrane Incorporation Modulates the Stability and Fusion-Associated Behavior of Biomimetic Liposomes.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2026Article
- Flip Flop-Associated Growth and Division of Synthetic Cells.ACS nano · 2026Article
338 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
A fundamental feature of cellular plasma membranes (PMs) is an asymmetric lipid distribution between the bilayer leaflets. However, neither the detailed, comprehensive compositions of individual PM leaflets nor how these contribute to structural membrane asymmetries have been defined. We report the distinct lipidomes and biophysical properties of both monolayers in living mammalian PMs. Phospholipid unsaturation is dramatically asymmetric, with the cytoplasmic leaflet being approximately twofold more unsaturated than the exoplasmic leaflet. Atomistic simulations and spectroscopy of leaflet-selective fluorescent probes reveal that the outer PM leaflet is more packed and less diffusive than the inner leaflet, with this biophysical asymmetry maintained in the endocytic system. The structural asymmetry of the PM is reflected in the asymmetric structures of protein transmembrane domains. These structural asymmetries are conserved throughout Eukaryota, suggesting fundamental cellular design principles.
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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.