Han Xue, Hristova Kalina
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
J Membr Biol. 2009 Feb;227(3):123-31. doi: 10.1007/s00232-008-9151-3. Epub 2009 Jan 24.
Membrane proteins fold, assemble and function within their native fluid lipid environment. Structural studies of fluid lipid bilayers are thus critically important for understanding processes in membranes. Here, we propose a simple approach to visualize the hydrocarbon core using neutron diffraction and deuterated lipids that are commercially available. This method should have broad utility in structural studies of the bilayer response to protein insertion and folding in membranes.
膜蛋白在其天然的流体脂质环境中折叠、组装并发挥功能。因此,对流体脂质双层进行结构研究对于理解膜中的过程至关重要。在此,我们提出一种简单的方法,利用中子衍射和市售的氘代脂质来可视化碳氢化合物核心。这种方法在研究双层对膜中蛋白质插入和折叠的响应的结构研究中应具有广泛的用途。