ReviewFrontiers in cell and developmental biology2021
Fusexins, HAP2/GCS1 and Evolution of Gamete Fusion.
Review in Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- The sperm cell-surface protein GEX3 coordinates with GEX2 and DMP8/9 to mediate sperm-egg adhesion and fusion in Arabidopsis.Plant communications · 2026Article
- The SPARK complex forms the molecular basis of vertebrate fertilization.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Crystal structure and nanobodies against domain 3 of the malaria parasite fusogen Plasmodium falciparum HAP2.The Biochemical journal · 2026Article
- Pathogen-Mediated Cell Fusion and Actin Cytoskeleton.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- How Do Cancer Cells Fuse and Why?Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Sexual selection and pseudogenization in primate fertilization.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2025Article
- Cell-cell fusion in cancer: The next cancer hallmark?The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology · 2024Review
- Visualizing intermediate stages of viral membrane fusion by cryo-electron tomography.Trends in biochemical sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- Viral Membrane Fusion: A Dance Between Proteins and Lipids.Annual review of virology · 2023Review
- A novel function for the sperm adhesion protein IZUMO1 in cell-cell fusion.The Journal of cell biology · 2023Article
- Where are all the egg genes?Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Extracellular Events Involved in Cancer Cell-Cell Fusion.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Evolutionary Relationships and Divergence ofGenes · 2022Article
- Uncovering an ancestral green ménage à trois: Contributions of Chlamydomonas to the discovery of a broadly conserved triad of plant fertilization proteins.Current opinion in plant biology · 2022Review
- Discovery of archaeal fusexins homologous to eukaryotic HAP2/GCS1 gamete fusion proteins.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Life cycle strategies in free-living unicellular eukaryotes: Diversity, evolution, and current molecular tools to unravel the private life of microorganisms.The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyReview
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Gamete fusion is the climax of fertilization in all sexually reproductive organisms, from unicellular fungi to humans. Similarly to other cell-cell fusion events, gamete fusion is mediated by specialized proteins, named fusogens, that overcome the energetic barriers during this process. In recent years, HAPLESS 2/GENERATIVE CELL-SPECIFIC 1 (HAP2/GCS1) was identified as the fusogen mediating sperm-egg fusion in flowering plants and protists, being both essential and sufficient for the membrane merger in some species. The identification of HAP2/GCS1 in invertebrates, opens the possibility that a similar fusogen may be used in vertebrate fertilization. HAP2/GCS1 proteins share a similar structure with two distinct families of exoplasmic fusogens: the somatic Fusion Family (FF) proteins discovered in nematodes, and class II viral glycoproteins (e.g., rubella and dengue viruses). Altogether, these fusogens form the Fusexin superfamily. While some attributes are shared among fusexins, for example the overall structure and the possibility of assembly into trimers, some other characteristics seem to be specific, such as the presence or not of hydrophobic loops or helices at the distal tip of the protein. Intriguingly, HAP2/GCS1 or other fusexins have neither been identified in vertebrates nor in fungi, raising the question of whether these genes were lost during evolution and were replaced by other fusion machinery or a significant divergence makes their identification difficult. Here, we discuss the biology of HAP2/GCS1, its involvement in gamete fusion and the structural, mechanistic and evolutionary relationships with other fusexins.
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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.