scholarly journals Lipid Transporters Beam Signals from Cell Membranes

Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 562
Author(s):  
Miliça Ristovski ◽  
Danny Farhat ◽  
Shelly Ellaine M. Bancud ◽  
Jyh-Yeuan Lee
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Lipid Bilayers ◽  
Lipid Composition ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Integral Membrane Proteins ◽  
Cellular Membranes ◽  
Cytoplasmic Proteins ◽  
Lipid Transporters

Lipid composition in cellular membranes plays an important role in maintaining the structural integrity of cells and in regulating cellular signaling that controls functions of both membrane-anchored and cytoplasmic proteins. ATP-dependent ABC and P4-ATPase lipid transporters, two integral membrane proteins, are known to contribute to lipid translocation across the lipid bilayers on the cellular membranes. In this review, we will highlight current knowledge about the role of cholesterol and phospholipids of cellular membranes in regulating cell signaling and how lipid transporters participate this process.

scholarly journals Transporters Beam Signals from Cell Membranes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milica Ristovski ◽  
Danny Farhat ◽  
Shelly Bancud ◽  
Jyh-Yeuan Lee
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Lipid Composition ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Cellular Membrane ◽  
Integral Membrane Proteins ◽  
Lipid Transport ◽  
Cellular Membranes ◽  
Cytoplasmic Proteins ◽  
Lipid Transporters

Lipid composition in the cellular membranes plays an important role in maintaining the struc-tural integrity of cells and in regulating cellular signaling that controls functions of both mem-brane-anchored and cytoplasmic proteins. ATP-dependent ABC and P4-ATPase lipid transport-ers, two integral membrane proteins, are known to contribute to lipid translocation across the li-pid bilayers on the cellular membranes. In this review, we will highlight current knowledge about the role of cholesterol and phospholipids of cellular membrane in regulating cell signaling and how lipid transporters participate this process.

Role of membrane proteins in permeability barrier function: uroplakin ablation elevates urothelial permeability

2002 ◽  
Vol 283 (6) ◽  
pp. F1200-F1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Hu ◽  
Susan Meyers ◽  
Feng-Xia Liang ◽  
Fang-Ming Deng ◽  
Bechara Kachar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Water Permeability ◽  
Barrier Function ◽  
Apical Membrane ◽  
Integral Membrane Proteins ◽  
Transepithelial Resistance ◽  
Permeability Barrier ◽  
Major Protein ◽  
Apical Membranes

Although water, small nonelectrolytes, and gases are freely permeable through most biological membranes, apical membranes of certain barrier epithelia exhibit extremely low permeabilities to these substances. The role of integral membrane proteins in this barrier function has been unclear. To study this problem, we have ablated the mouse gene encoding uroplakin III (UPIII), one of the major protein subunits in urothelial apical membranes, and measured the permeabilities of these membranes. Ablation of the UPIII gene greatly diminishes the amounts of uroplakins on the apical urothelial membrane (Hu P, Deng FM, Liang FX, Hu CM, Auerbach AB, Shapiro E, Wu XR, Kachar B, and Sun TT. J Cell Biol151: 961–972, 2000). Our results indicate that normal mouse urothelium exhibits high transepithelial resistance and low urea and water permeabilities. The UPIII-deficient urothelium exhibits a normal transepithelial resistance (normal 2,024 ± 122, knockout 2,322 ± 114 Ω · cm2; P > 0.5). However, the UPIII-deficient apical membrane has a significantly elevated water permeability (normal 0.91 ± 0.06, knockout 1.83 ± 0.14 cm/s × 10−5; P < 0.05). The urea permeability of the UPIII-deficient membrane also increased, although to a lesser extent (normal 2.22 ± 0.24, knockout 2.93 ± 0.31 cm/s × 10−6; P = 0.12). These results indicate that reduced targeting of uroplakins to the apical membrane does not significantly alter the tight junctional barrier but does double the water permeability. We provide the first demonstration that integral membrane proteins contribute to the apical membrane permeability barrier function of urothelium.

scholarly journals bSUM: A bead-supported unilamellar membrane system facilitating unidirectional insertion of membrane proteins into giant vesicles

2015 ◽  
Vol 147 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zheng ◽  
Sungsoo Lee ◽  
Marc C. Llaguno ◽  
Qiu-Xing Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Ion Channels ◽  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Lipid Bilayers ◽  
Lipid Composition ◽  
Targeted Delivery ◽  
Membrane System ◽  
Membrane Systems ◽  
Giant Vesicles ◽  
Planar Electrode ◽  
New System

Fused or giant vesicles, planar lipid bilayers, a droplet membrane system, and planar-supported membranes have been developed to incorporate membrane proteins for the electrical and biophysical analysis of such proteins or the bilayer properties. However, it remains difficult to incorporate membrane proteins, including ion channels, into reconstituted membrane systems that allow easy control of operational dimensions, incorporation orientation of the membrane proteins, and lipid composition of membranes. Here, using a newly developed chemical engineering procedure, we report on a bead-supported unilamellar membrane (bSUM) system that allows good control over membrane dimension, protein orientation, and lipid composition. Our new system uses specific ligands to facilitate the unidirectional incorporation of membrane proteins into lipid bilayers. Cryo–electron microscopic imaging demonstrates the unilamellar nature of the bSUMs. Electrical recordings from voltage-gated ion channels in bSUMs of varying diameters demonstrate the versatility of the new system. Using KvAP as a model system, we show that compared with other in vitro membrane systems, the bSUMs have the following advantages: (a) a major fraction of channels are orientated in a controlled way; (b) the channels mediate the formation of the lipid bilayer; (c) there is one and only one bilayer membrane on each bead; (d) the lipid composition can be controlled and the bSUM size is also under experimental control over a range of 0.2–20 µm; (e) the channel activity can be recorded by patch clamp using a planar electrode; and (f) the voltage-clamp speed (0.2–0.5 ms) of the bSUM on a planar electrode is fast, making it suitable to study ion channels with fast gating kinetics. Our observations suggest that the chemically engineered bSUMs afford a novel platform for studying lipid–protein interactions in membranes of varying lipid composition and may be useful for other applications, such as targeted delivery and single-molecule imaging.

scholarly journals Tryptophan, an Amino-Acid Endowed with Unique Properties and Its Many Roles in Membrane Proteins

Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1032
Author(s):  
Sonia Khemaissa ◽  
Sandrine Sagan ◽  
Astrid Walrant
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Hydrogen Bonds ◽  
Membrane Protein ◽  
Lipid Bilayers ◽  
Noncovalent Interactions ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Protein Stabilization ◽  
Physico Chemical

Tryptophan is an aromatic amino acid with unique physico-chemical properties. It is often encountered in membrane proteins, especially at the level of the water/bilayer interface. It plays a role in membrane protein stabilization, anchoring and orientation in lipid bilayers. It has a hydrophobic character but can also engage in many types of interactions, such as π–cation or hydrogen bonds. In this review, we give an overview of the role of tryptophan in membrane proteins and a more detailed description of the underlying noncovalent interactions it can engage in with membrane partners.

scholarly journals Exploring the Role of Integral Membrane Proteins in ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters: Analysis of a Collection of MalG Insertion Mutants

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (9) ◽  
pp. 2507-2514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryn D. Nelson ◽  
Beth Traxler
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Cytoplasmic Membrane ◽  
Binding Protein ◽  
Maltose Binding Protein ◽  
Integral Membrane Proteins ◽  
Atp Binding ◽  
Mutant Proteins ◽  
Transport Complex ◽  
Atp Binding Cassette

ABSTRACT The maltose transport complex of Escherichia coli is a well-studied example of an ATP-binding cassette transporter. The complex, containing one copy each of the integral membrane proteins MalG and MalF and two copies of the peripheral cytoplasmic membrane protein MalK, interacts with the periplasmic maltose-binding protein to efficiently translocate maltose and maltodextrins across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. To investigate the role of MalG both in MalFGK2 assembly interactions and in subsequent transport interactions, we isolated and characterized 18 different MalG mutants, each containing a 31-residue insertion in the protein. Eight insertions mapping to distinct hydrophilic regions of MalG permitted either assembly or both assembly and transport interactions to occur. In particular, we isolated two insertions mapping to extracytoplasmic (periplasmic) regions of MalG which preserved both assembly and transport abilities, suggesting that these are permissive sites in the protein. Another periplasmic insertion seems to affect only transport-specific interactions between MalG and maltose-binding protein, defining a novel class of MalG mutants. Finally, four MalG mutant proteins, although stably expressed, are unable to assemble into the MalFGK2 complex. These mutants contain insertions in only two different hydrophilic regions of MalG, consistent with the notion that a restricted number of domains in this protein are critical complex assembly determinants. These MalG mutants will allow us to further explore the intermolecular interactions of this model transporter.

scholarly journals Molecular Crosstalking among Noncoding RNAs: A New Network Layer of Genome Regulation in Cancer

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Ragusa ◽  
Cristina Barbagallo ◽  
Duilia Brex ◽  
Angela Caponnetto ◽  
Matilde Cirnigliaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Noncoding Rnas ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Cellular Mechanisms ◽  
Protein Coding ◽  
The Past ◽  
Higher Eukaryotes

Over the past few years, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been extensively studied because of the significant biological roles that they play in regulation of cellular mechanisms. ncRNAs are associated to higher eukaryotes complexity; accordingly, their dysfunction results in pathological phenotypes, including cancer. To date, most research efforts have been mainly focused on how ncRNAs could modulate the expression of protein-coding genes in pathological phenotypes. However, recent evidence has shown the existence of an unexpected interplay among ncRNAs that strongly influences cancer development and progression. ncRNAs can interact with and regulate each other through various molecular mechanisms generating a complex network including different species of RNAs (e.g., mRNAs, miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs). Such a hidden network of RNA-RNA competitive interactions pervades and modulates the physiological functioning of canonical protein-coding pathways involved in proliferation, differentiation, and metastasis in cancer. Moreover, the pivotal role of ncRNAs as keystones of network structural integrity makes them very attractive and promising targets for innovative RNA-based therapeutics. In this review we will discuss: (1) the current knowledge on complex crosstalk among ncRNAs, with a special focus on cancer; and (2) the main issues and criticisms concerning ncRNAs targeting in therapeutics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document