Dataset Information

Tuning lipid mixtures to induce or suppress domain formation across leaflets of unsupported asymmetric bilayers.

ABSTRACT: Plasma membranes of cells are asymmetric in both lipid and protein composition. The mechanism by which proteins on both sides of the membrane colocalize during signaling events is unknown but may be due to the induction of inner leaflet domains by the outer leaflet. Here we show that liquid domains form in asymmetric Montal-Mueller planar bilayers in which one leaflet's composition would phase-separate in a symmetric bilayer and the other's would not. Equally important, by tuning the lipid composition of the second leaflet, we are able to suppress domains in the first leaflet. When domains are present in asymmetric membranes, each leaflet contains regions of three distinct lipid compositions, implying strong interleaflet interactions. Our results show that mechanisms of domain induction between the outer and inner leaflets of cell plasma membranes do not necessarily require the participation of membrane proteins. Based on these findings, we suggest mechanisms by which cells could actively regulate protein function by modulating local lipid composition or interleaflet interactions.

SUBMITTER: Collins MD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2224171 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Tuning lipid mixtures to induce or suppress domain formation across leaflets of unsupported asymmetric bilayers.

Collins Marcus D MD Keller Sarah L SL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20080102 1

Plasma membranes of cells are asymmetric in both lipid and protein composition. The mechanism by which proteins on both sides of the membrane colocalize during signaling events is unknown but may be due to the induction of inner leaflet domains by the outer leaflet. Here we show that liquid domains form in asymmetric Montal-Mueller planar bilayers in which one leaflet's composition would phase-separate in a symmetric bilayer and the other's would not. Equally important, by tuning the lipid compo ...[more]

PMID: 18172219

Similar Datasets

Project description:This study reports the effect of loading four different charged designer lipid-like short anionic and cationic peptide surfactants on the fully hydrated monoolein (MO)-based Pn3m phase (Q(224)). The studied peptide surfactants comprise seven amino acid residues, namely A(6)D, DA(6), A(6)K, and KA(6). D (aspartic acid) bears two negative charges, K (lysine) bears one positive charge, and A (alanine) constitutes the hydrophobic tail. To elucidate the impact of these peptide surfactants, the ternary MO/peptide/water system has been investigated using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), within a certain range of peptide concentrations (R<or=0.2) and temperatures (25 to 70 degrees C). We demonstrate that the bilayer curvature and the stability are modulated by: i) the peptide/lipid molar ratio, ii) the peptide molecular structure (the degree of hydrophobicity, the type of the hydrophilic amino acid, and the headgroup location), and iii) the temperature. The anionic peptide surfactants, A(6)D and DA(6), exhibit the strongest surface activity. At low peptide concentrations (R = 0.01), the Pn3m structure is still preserved, but its lattice increases due to the strong electrostatic repulsion between the negatively charged peptide molecules, which are incorporated into the interface. This means that the anionic peptides have the effect of enlarging the water channels and thus they serve to enhance the accommodation of positively charged water-soluble active molecules in the Pn3m phase. At higher peptide concentration (R = 0.10), the lipid bilayers are destabilized and the structural transition from the Pn3m to the inverted hexagonal phase (H(2)) is induced. For the cationic peptides, our study illustrates how even minor modifications, such as changing the location of the headgroup (A(6)K vs. KA(6)), affects significantly the peptide's effectiveness. Only KA(6) displays a propensity to promote the formation of H(2), which suggests that KA(6) molecules have a higher degree of incorporation in the interface than those of A(6)K.

Project description:Diphtheria toxin translocation (T) domain undergoes conformational changes in acidic solution and associates with the lipid membranes, followed by refolding and transmembrane insertion of two nonpolar helices. This process is an essential step in delivery of the toxic catalytic domain of the diphtheria toxin to the infected cell, yet its molecular determinants are poorly characterized and understood. Therefore, an atomistic model of the T-domain-membrane interaction is needed to help characterize factors responsible for such association. In this work, we present atomistic model structures of T-domain membrane-bound conformations and investigate structural factors responsible for T-domain affinity with the lipid bilayer in acidic solution using all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The initial models of the protein conformations and protein-membrane association that serve as starting points in the present work were developed using atomistic simulations of partial unfolding of the T-domain in acidic solution (Kurnikov, I. V.; et al. J. Mol. Biol. 2013, 425, 2752-2764), and coarse-grained simulations of the T-domain association with the membranes of various compositions (Flores-Canales, J. C.; et al. J. Membr. Biol. 2015, 248, 529-543). In this work we present atomistic level modeling of two distinct configurations of the T-domain in association with the anionic lipid bilayer. In microsecond-long MD simulations both conformations retain their compact structure and gradually penetrate deeper into the bilayer interface. One membrane-bound conformation is stabilized by the protein contacts with the lipid hydrophobic core. The second modeled conformation is initially inserted less deeply and forms multiple contacts with the lipid at the interface (headgroup) region. Such contacts are formed by the charged and hydrophilic groups of partially unfolded terminal helixes and loops. Neutralization of the acidic residues at the membrane interface allows for deeper insertion of the protein and reorientation of the protein at the membrane interface, which corroborates that acidic residue protonation as well as presence of the anionic lipids may play a role in the membrane association and further membrane insertion of the T-domain as implicated in experiments. All simulations reported in this work were performed using AMBER force-field on Anton supercomputer. To perform these reported simulations, we developed and carefully tested a force-field for the anionic 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidyl-glycerol (POPG) lipid, compatible with the Amber 99SB force-field and stable in microsecond-long MD simulations in isothermal-isobaric ensemble.

Dataset Information

Tuning lipid mixtures to induce or suppress domain formation across leaflets of unsupported asymmetric bilayers.

Publications

Tuning lipid mixtures to induce or suppress domain formation across leaflets of unsupported asymmetric bilayers.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets