Composition fluctuations, correlated response, and protein solvation in membranes

Membrane composition fluctuations are deduced from the deuterium NMR relaxation data of S. L. Veatch et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 17650 (2007)]. A theoretical model for these fluctuations is used to determine the parameters of a correlation function. A fluctuation-response relation is then derived to infer the response of a lipid bilayer membrane to perturbations, such as the presence of a protein. The energy of the correlated response is shown to decrease as a bilayer miscibility critical point is approached from higher temperatures. Near the critical temperature the low energy of the composition response facilitates the lipid solvation of membrane proteins and minimizes lipid-mediated nonspecific protein-protein interactions. This facilitated lipid solvation of membrane proteins may be the basis of reports that at the growth temperature, the lipids of animal cell membranes have compositions such that they are within approximately 10 degrees of a miscibility critical point.