Protein-rich rafts in hybrid polymer/lipid giant unilamellar vesicles

Considerable attention has been dedicated to lipid rafts due to their importance in numerous cell functions such as membrane trafficking, polarization, and signaling. Next to studies in living cells, artificial micrometer-sized vesicles with a minimal set of components are established as a major too...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Otrin, Nika, Bednarz, Claudia, Otrin, Lado, Ivanov, Ivan|||0000-0002-4675-5287, Träger, Toni K., Hamdi, Farzad, Kastritis, Panagiotis L., Sundmacher, Kai
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/403768
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/403768
https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.3c00972
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Peptides
Lipids
Proteins
Membranes
Peptides and proteins
Phase separation
Vesicles
Pèptids
Lípids
Proteïnes
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química
Descripción
Sumario:Considerable attention has been dedicated to lipid rafts due to their importance in numerous cell functions such as membrane trafficking, polarization, and signaling. Next to studies in living cells, artificial micrometer-sized vesicles with a minimal set of components are established as a major tool to understand the phase separation dynamics and their intimate interplay with membrane proteins. In parallel, mixtures of phospholipids and certain amphiphilic polymers simultaneously offer an interface for proteins and mimic this segregation behavior, presenting a tangible synthetic alternative for fundamental studies and bottom-up design of cellular mimics. However, the simultaneous insertion of complex and sensitive membrane proteins is experimentally challenging and thus far has been largely limited to natural lipids. Here, we present the co-reconstitution of the proton pump bo3 oxidase and the proton consumer ATP synthase in hybrid polymer/lipid giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) via fusion/electroformation. Variations of the current method allow for tailored reconstitution protocols and control of the vesicle size. In particular, mixing of protein-free and protein-functionalized nanosized vesicles in the electroformation film results in larger GUVs, while separate reconstitution of the respiratory enzymes enables higher ATP synthesis rates. Furthermore, protein labeling provides a synthetic mechanism for phase separation and protein sequestration, mimicking lipid- and protein-mediated domain formation in nature. The latter means opens further possibilities for re-enacting phenomena like supercomplex assembly or symmetry breaking and enriches the toolbox of bottom-up synthetic biology.