Damjanovich S, Vámosi G, Bodnár Andrea, Bene L
Cell Biophysics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, University of Debrecen.
Acta Physiol Hung. 2002;89(4):415-25. doi: 10.1556/APhysiol.89.2002.4.2.
Thirty years ago Singer and Nicolson constructed the "fluid mosaic model" of the membrane, which described the structural and functional characteristics of the plasma membrane of non-polarized cells like circulating blood lymphocytes as a fluid lipid phase accommodating proteins with a relatively free mobility. It is a rare phenomenon in biology that such a model could survive 30 years and even today it has a high degree of validity. However, in the light of new data it demands some modifications. In this minireview we present a new concept, which revives the SN model, by shifting the emphasis from fluidity to mosaicism, i.e. to lipid microdomains and rafts. A concise summary of data and key methods is given, proving the existence of non-random co-distribution patterns of different receptor kinds in the microdomain system of the plasma membrane. Furthermore we present evidence that proteins are not only accommodated by the lipid phase, but they are integral structural elements of it. Novel suggestions to the SN model help to develop a modernized version of the old paradigm in the light of new data.
30年前，辛格和尼科尔森构建了细胞膜的“流体镶嵌模型”，该模型将循环血淋巴细胞等非极化细胞的质膜的结构和功能特征描述为一种容纳具有相对自由流动性蛋白质的流体脂质相。在生物学中，这样一个模型能够存续30年，甚至在今天仍具有高度的有效性，这是一种罕见的现象。然而，鉴于新的数据，它需要一些修正。在这篇小型综述中，我们提出了一个新的概念，通过将重点从流动性转移到镶嵌性，即脂质微区和筏，来复兴SN模型。文中给出了数据和关键方法的简要总结，证明了不同种类受体在质膜微区系统中存在非随机共分布模式。此外，我们还提供了证据表明蛋白质不仅被脂质相容纳，而且它们是脂质相不可或缺的结构成分。对SN模型的新建议有助于根据新数据开发旧范式的现代化版本。
