Single-Molecule Analysis of Biomembranes

Abstract

Biomembranes are more than just a cell’s envelope — as the interface to the surrounding of a cell they carry key signallingfunctions. Consequentially, membranes are highly complex organelles: they host about thousand different types of lipids andabout half of the proteome, whose interaction has to be orchestrated appropriately for the various signalling purposes. Inparticular, knowledge on the nanoscopic organization of the plasma membrane appears critical for understanding the regulationof interactions between membrane proteins. The high localization precision of ∼20 nm combined with a high time resolutionof ∼1 ms made single molecule tracking an excellent technology to obtain insights into membrane nanostructures, even in alive cell context. In this chapter, we will highlight concepts to achieve superresolution by single molecule imaging, summarizetools for data analysis, and review applications on artificial and live cell membranes.