Mechanical factors affecting the mobility of membrane proteins

Abstract

The mobility of membrane proteins controls many biological functions. The application of the model of Saffman and Delbruck to the diffusion of membrane proteins does not account for all the experimental measurements. These discrepancies have triggered a lot of studies on the role of the mechanical factors in the mobility. After a short review of the Saffman and Delbruck model and of some key experiments, we explore the various ways to incorporate the effects of the different mechanical factors. Our approach focuses on the coupling of the protein to the membrane, which is the central element in the modeling. We present a general, polaron-like model, its recent application to the mobility of a curvature sensitive protein, and its various extensions to other couplings that may be relevant in future experiments.