Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41259136›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

The configurational length scale in the self-assembly and modulation of higher-order transient protein structures.

Christoph A Haselwandter, Roderick MacKinnon

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Biomolecular assemblies through weak noncovalent interactions: Higher-order transient structures and their condensate phase.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Christoph A HaselwandterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.ORCID 0000-0002-5012-5640
Roderick MacKinnonLaboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics, HHMI, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065.ORCID 0000-0001-7605-4679

Funding

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) InvestigatorNational Science Foundation (NSF) DMR-2051681
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Membrane protein homo-oligomers named higher-order transient structures (HOTS) are formed through cohesive self-interactions in the range of a few [Formula: see text]. The small magnitude of these interactions underlies the rapid reversibility of HOTS on the timescale of membrane signaling processes, permitting the dynamic modulation of signals. At the same time, weak interactions present an apparent paradox: HOTS should form only if the concentration of a particular protein is sufficiently high to produce oligomerization by mass action. And yet, HOTS are observed experimentally with membrane proteins present in cell membranes at concentrations of only a few per [Formula: see text]. In this study, we employ principles of statistical thermodynamics to explain how cells can alter the configurational entropy of the oligomerization reaction, thereby achieving HOTS formation at low concentrations of the protein in the membrane. We propose that this modification of the configurational entropy, a process we call configurational length scaling, is an important aspect of HOTS formation in cell membranes and possibly other cellular compartments.

Indexed as

Membrane ProteinsProtein MultimerizationCell MembraneEntropyProtein ConformationThermodynamicsMembrane Proteinscellular organizationGPCRhigher-order transient structures (HOTS)molecular crowdingself-assembly

Identifiers

PMID41259136
PMCPMC12663986

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.