Every field of research has influential papers that have shaped and guided future work. In the July issue of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology (15, 655-657; 2008), Reinhard Jahn gives his picks for membrane fusion and a little bit of history about how the field has developed. He writes:

Over the past 30 years, three main lines of research have made important contributions to our present understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in membrane fusion: (i) the development and quantitative treatment of physical models describing the fusion of planar and curved bilayers at various levels of complexity and detail; (ii) the structural and mechanistic insights obtained from the investigation of fusion proteins of enveloped viruses, with research on the fusion protein of the influenza virus having made seminal contributions; and (iii) the study of fusion proteins involved in fusion events of eukaryotic cells, with the most important work being carried out on the SNARE proteins and associated regulatory proteins. In what follows, I will briefly discuss the studies that have helped form the basis for all subsequent work in the field of membrane fusion. The papers describing these studies make up my personal list of ‘classics’.

Please see Nature Structural and Molecular Biology for the rest of this article, and the list of selected papers.

This issue of the journal also features a focus of articles on membrane fusion, an in-depth look at a process essential for communication within and between cells via reviews, an essay, classic papers and a library of resources.