Model membrane platforms to study protein-membrane interactions

Abstract

Constituting functional interactions between proteins and lipid membranes is one of the essential features of cellular membranes. The major challenge of quantitatively studying these interactions in living cells is the multitude of involved components that are difficult, if not impossible, to simultaneously control. Therefore, there is great need for simplified but still sufficiently detailed model systems to investigate the key constituents of biological processes. To specifically focus on interactions between membrane proteins and lipids, several membrane models have been introduced which recapitulate to varying degrees the complexity and physicochemical nature of biological membranes. Here, we summarize the presently most widely used minimal model membrane systems, namely Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLBs), Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) and Giant Plasma Membrane Vesicles (GPMVs) and their applications for protein-membrane interactions.

Keywords::

• Membrane model
• membrane lipid
• membrane protein

Acknowledgements

We thank Grzegorz Chwastek and Fabian Heinemann for Atomic Force Microscopy images and Ilya Levental for his careful reading of and valuable comments on the manuscript. Financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG Project Number SO-818/1-1 and SFB TRR 83/1-2010) is gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.