Defining raft domains in the plasma membrane

83Citations
Citations of this article
103Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Many plasma membrane (PM) functions depend on the cholesterol concentration in the PM in strikingly nonlinear, cooperative ways: fully functional in the presence of physiological cholesterol levels (35~45 mol%), and nonfunctional below 25 mol% cholesterol; namely, still in the presence of high concentrations of cholesterol. This suggests the involvement of cholesterol-based complexes/domains formed cooperatively. In this review, by examining the results obtained by using fluorescent lipid analogs and avoiding the trap of circular logic, often found in the raft literature, we point out the fundamental similarities of liquid-ordered (Lo)-phase domains in giant unilamellar vesicles, Lo-phase-like domains formed at lower temperatures in giant PM vesicles, and detergent-resistant membranes: these domains are formed by cooperative interactions of cholesterol, saturated acyl chains, and unsaturated acyl chains, in the presence of >25 mol% cholesterol. The literature contains evidence, indicating that the domains formed by the same basic cooperative molecular interactions exist and play essential roles in signal transduction in the PM. Therefore, as a working definition, we propose that raft domains in the PM are liquid-like molecular complexes/domains formed by cooperative interactions of cholesterol with saturated acyl chains as well as unsaturated acyl chains, due to saturated acyl chains' weak multiple accommodating interactions with cholesterol and cholesterol's low miscibility with unsaturated acyl chains and TM proteins. Molecules move within raft domains and exchange with those in the bulk PM. We provide a logically established collection of fluorescent lipid probes that preferentially partition into raft and non-raft domains, as defined here, in the PM.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Kusumi, A., Fujiwara, T. K., Tsunoyama, T. A., Kasai, R. S., Liu, A. A., Hirosawa, K. M., … Suzuki, K. G. N. (2020, January 1). Defining raft domains in the plasma membrane. Traffic. Blackwell Munksgaard. https://doi.org/10.1111/tra.12718

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free