To determine if SC2:NC3 electrostatic interactions are exclusively responsible for the whole fusion pore stabilization process, we neutralized the -1 charge in all SMACs SC2 beads. By repeating the simulation under identical conditions we obtained the SMAC:lipid bead-to-bead interactions shown in panel 6b on the right, where no significantly dominant bead-to-bead interactions can be distinguished. Surprisingly, the fusion pore is again stable under these conditions (see snapshot inset in panel 6b on the right), suggesting that the whole group of SMAC:lipid interactions are still robust enough to compensate the absence of the main electrostatic interactions and nevertheless extend the life of the pore. Table shows SMAC:lipid bead-to-bead interactions in descending order of importance for both cases: neutralized (SC2=0) and originally charged SMACs (SC2=-1). See figure in supplementary information for density charge profiles along the normal axis to the bilayers.