Thallmair Sebastian, Ingólfsson Helgi I, Marrink Siewert J
Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute and The Zernike Institute for Advanced Material , University of Groningen , Nijenborgh 7 , 9747 AG Groningen , Netherlands.
Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate , Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , 7000 East Avenue , Livermore , 94550 California , United States.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2018 Sep 20;9(18):5527-5533. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01877. Epub 2018 Sep 11.
The plasma membrane is a highly complex multicomponent system that is central to the functioning of cells. Cholesterol, a key lipid component of the plasma membrane, promotes the formation of nanodomains. These nanodomains are often correlated across the two membrane leaflets, but the underlying physical mechanism remains unclear. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the influence of cholesterol flip-flop on membrane properties, in particular, the interleaflet coupling of cholesterol-enriched domains. We show that the cholesterol density correlation between the leaflets of an average mammalian plasma membrane is significantly reduced by suppressing interleaflet cholesterol population. Our results suggest an amplifying role of cholesterol in signal transduction across the leaflets.
质膜是一个高度复杂的多组分系统，对细胞功能起着核心作用。胆固醇作为质膜的关键脂质成分，促进纳米结构域的形成。这些纳米结构域通常在两个膜小叶之间相互关联，但其潜在的物理机制仍不清楚。我们使用粗粒度分子动力学模拟，研究胆固醇翻转对膜性质的影响，特别是富含胆固醇区域的小叶间耦合。我们发现，通过抑制小叶间胆固醇的分布，平均哺乳动物质膜小叶间的胆固醇密度相关性显著降低。我们的结果表明胆固醇在跨小叶信号转导中具有放大作用。
