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Updated: May 21, 2026

Enriching Subcellular Proteins in Leptospira Using a Triton X-114-Based Fractionation Approach
Published on: August 8, 2025
Lipid bilayers in the gel phase become saturated by triton X-100 at lower surfactant concentrations than those in the
Hasna Ahyayauch1, M Isabel Collado, Alicia Alonso
1Unidad de Biofísica (Centro Mixto CSIC-UPV/EHU) and Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Spain.
Abstract:
It has been repeatedly observed that lipid bilayers in the gel phase are solubilized by lower concentrations of Triton X-100, at least within certain temperature ranges, or other nonionic detergents than bilayers in the fluid phase. In a previous study, we showed that detergent partition coefficients into the lipid bilayer were the same for the gel and the fluid phases. In this contribution, turbidity, calorimetry, and 31P-NMR concur in showing that bilayers in the gel state (at least down to 13-20°C below the gel-fluid transition temperature) become saturated with detergent at lower detergent concentrations than those in the fluid state, irrespective of temperature. The different saturation may explain the observed differences in solubilization.
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