Braun J, Abney J R, Owicki J C
Nature. 1984;310(5975):316-8. doi: 10.1038/310316a0.
In gap junctions, identical membrane proteins are linked up in pairs (dyads) that bridge the extracellular space between two apposed cell membranes. Typically, several thousand of these dyads are aggregated in the plane of the membranes and form a junctional plaque with a distinct boundary. The question thus arises as to what maintains the dyads in an aggregated state. From a statistical mechanical analysis of the positions of dyads in a freeze-fracture electron micrograph, we report here that the aggregates are not maintained by an attractive force between pairs of dyads, but probably by the minimization of the repulsive force between apposed membranes. On the basis of this analysis we present a model for the structure of mature gap junctions as well as certain aspects of the formation and disassembly of gap junctions.
在间隙连接中，相同的膜蛋白成对连接（二联体），跨越两个相邻细胞膜之间的细胞外间隙。通常，数千个这样的二联体聚集在膜平面内，形成一个具有明显边界的连接斑。因此出现了一个问题，即是什么使二联体保持聚集状态。通过对冷冻断裂电子显微镜中二联体位置的统计力学分析，我们在此报告，聚集体并非由二联体对之间的吸引力维持，而是可能由相邻膜之间排斥力的最小化维持。基于此分析，我们提出了一个成熟间隙连接结构的模型以及间隙连接形成和拆卸的某些方面。
