Schematic pathway of the MOD emergence. Creation of curved areas in the membrane, here due to thermal undulations, is coupled to the lateral redistribution of the membrane components according to their curvature preferences and to the curvature-driven binding of proteins. This coupling first leads to the enhancement of the undulations, then to the MOD emergence, if more components stabilizing membrane curvature (blue banana) or clustering on the MOD membrane (blue caps) are added. MODs can quickly disappear if the curvature-active components leaves, e.g. via desorption and disassembly coupled to GTP or ATP hydrolysis.