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Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases

Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases

Published on: November 21, 2010

Overcoming barriers to membrane protein structure determination.

Roslyn M Bill¹, Peter J F Henderson, So Iwata

¹School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.

Nature Biotechnology

|April 12, 2011

Summary

Technological advancements are accelerating membrane protein structure determination. New methods in protein engineering and microfocus X-ray diffraction offer solutions to previously intractable problems in structural biology.

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Area of Science:

Structural Biology
Biochemistry
Molecular Biology

Background:

Membrane proteins constitute approximately 30% of organismal proteomes.
Structural data for membrane proteins in the Protein Data Bank is significantly limited.
Progress in determining membrane protein structures has historically been slow.

Purpose of the Study:

To review recent technological advancements in membrane protein structure determination.
To highlight novel approaches for solving membrane protein structures.
To address the under-representation of membrane proteins in structural databases.

Main Methods:

Protein engineering techniques.
Microfocus X-ray diffraction.
Analysis of recent technological developments.

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Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases

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Published on: November 21, 2010

From Constructs to Crystals – Towards Structure Determination of β-barrel Outer Membrane Proteins

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Native Cell Membrane Nanoparticles System for Membrane Protein-Protein Interaction Analysis

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Main Results:

The pace of membrane protein structure research is accelerating.
Technological improvements are enabling new strategies for structure determination.
Generic approaches are emerging for overcoming previous bottlenecks.

Conclusions:

Continued technological innovation is crucial for advancing membrane protein structural biology.
Addressing bottlenecks is essential to increase the representation of membrane proteins in structural databases.
New methods promise to significantly expand our understanding of these vital proteins.