Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

In Vitro Reconstitution of the Actin Cytoskeleton Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles
Published on: August 25, 2022
Direct evidence of vinculin tail-lipid membrane interaction in beta-sheet conformation
Gerold Diez1, Felix List, James Smith
1Center for Medical Physics and Technology, Biophysics Group, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Henke strasse 91, Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
The focal adhesion protein vinculin (1066 residues) plays an important role in cell adhesion and migration. The interaction between vinculin and lipid membranes is necessary to ensure these processes. There are three putative lipid-membrane interaction sites located at the vinculin tail domain two that form amphipathic alpha-helices (residues 935-978 and 1020-1040) and one that remains unstructured (residues 1052-1066) during crystallization. In this work, the structural and biochemical properties of the last 21 residues of the vinculin tail domain were investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry was performed in the presence of lipid vesicles consisting of dimyristoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidylcholine and dimyristoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidylglycerol at various molar ratios. The results demonstrate that this peptide inserts into lipid vesicle membranes. Examining the secondary structure of this peptide by molecular dynamics simulations and circular dichroism spectroscopy, we show that it adopts an antiparallel beta sheet backbone geometry that could ensure the association with lipid vesicles.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Pinching-off of Coated Vesicles
Tension Response at Adherens Junctions
α-Catenin as a Mechanosensory Protein
The α-catenin of adherens junctions is an allosteric protein with three VH (vinculin homology) domains...
Mechanism of Filopodia Formation
Their main function is to guide migrating cells during normal tissue morphogenesis or cancer metastasis by recognizing and making initial contacts with the extracellular matrix. However, they can also act as stationary cell anchors or help to establish communication...
Intracellular Signaling Affects Focal Adhesions
Some...

