Can single electrons initiate fusion of biological membranes?

Animal cells export the content of vesicles by exocytosis, a process in which a vesicle and the plasma membrane fuse and ultimately form a pore. The initial event leading to the breakthrough of the membranes for pore formation is not well understood. Here we present a mathematical approach which suggests that this process is initiated by single electrons which could be present in the immediate proximity of the fusing membranes in aromatic amino acids. The electron can be regarded as non-classical; it takes up energy and transfers it to the membrane barrier, thereby eliciting conformational changes in the proteo-lipid complex leading to membrane fusion and thus initiating the opening of the fusion pore.