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The molecular face of lipid rafts in model membranes
- Source :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(45), 17367-17372. NATL ACAD SCIENCES
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- NATL ACAD SCIENCES, 2008.
-
Abstract
- Cell membranes contain a large number of different lipid species. Such a multicomponent mixture exhibits a complex phase behavior with regions of structural and compositional heterogeneity. Especially domains formed in ternary mixtures, composed of saturated and unsaturated lipids together with cholesterol, have received a lot of attention as they may resemble raft formation in real cells. Here we apply a simulation model to assess the molecular nature of these domains at the nanoscale, information that has thus far eluded experimental determination. We are able to show the spontaneous separation of a saturated phosphatidylcholine (PC)/unsaturated PC/cholesterol mixture into a liquid-ordered and a liquid-disordered phase with structural and dynamic properties closely matching experimental data. The near-atomic resolution of the simulations reveals remarkable features of both domains and the boundary domain interface. Furthermore, we predict the existence of a small surface tension between the monolayer leaflets that drives registration of the domains. At the level of molecular detail, raft-like lipid mixtures show a surprising face with possible implications for many cell membrane processes.
- Subjects :
- Models, Molecular
polyunsaturated
VESICLES
Cell membrane
Molecular dynamics
Membrane Microdomains
COARSE-GRAINED MODEL
Phase (matter)
Monolayer
coarse-grained
medicine
Computer Simulation
FIELD
Lipid raft
Multidisciplinary
DOMAIN FORMATION
Chemistry
Vesicle
CHOLESTEROL
FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY
liquid-ordered
PHASE-FORMATION
Raft
Biological Sciences
molecular dynamics
NMR
Crystallography
Membrane
medicine.anatomical_structure
Chemical physics
SIMULATION
MIXED BILAYERS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10916490 and 00278424
- Volume :
- 105
- Issue :
- 45
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....90292f350b7cf66e362e23b9b104c81c