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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Using Scaffold Liposomes to Reconstitute Lipid-proximal Protein-protein Interactions In Vitro
Published on: January 11, 2017
Corrections to the Saffman-Delbruck mobility for membrane bound proteins
Ali Naji1, Alex J Levine, P A Pincus
1Department of Physics and Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
Abstract:
Recent experiments (Gambin, Y., R. Lopez-Esparza, M. Reffay, E. Sierecki, N. S. Gov, M. Genest, R. S. Hodes, and W. Urbach. 2006. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 103:2098-2102) have called into question the applicability of the Saffman-Delbrück diffusivity for proteins embedded in the lipid bilayers. We present a simple argument to account for this observation that should be generically valid for a large class of transmembrane and membrane bound proteins. Whenever the protein-lipid interactions locally deform the membrane, that deformation generates new hydrodynamic stresses on the protein-membrane complex leading to a suppression of its mobility. We show that this suppression depends on the protein size in a manner consistent with the work of Gambin et al.
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