Specificity of intramembrane protein-lipid interactions

Abstract

Ourconcept of biological membranes has markedly changed fromthe fluid mosaic model to the current model that lipids and proteins have the ability to separate into microdomains differing in their protein and lipid compositions. Since the breakthrough in crystallizing membrane proteins the most powerful method to define lipid-binding sites on proteins has been X-ray and electron crystallography. More recently chemical biology approaches have been developed to analyze protein-lipid interactions. Such methods have the advantage of providing highly specific cellular probes. With the advent of novel tools to study functions of individual lipid species in membranes together with structural analysis and simulations at the atomistic resolution a growing number of specific protein-lipid complexes are defined and their functions explored. In the present article we discuss the various modes of intramembrane protein-lipid interactions in cellular membranes including examples for both annular and nonannular bound lipids. Furthermore we will discuss possible functional roles of such specific protein-lipid interactions aswell as roles of lipids as chaperones in protein folding and transport. © 2011 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.