Membrane protein reconstitution into giant unilamellar vesicles: a review on current techniques

Studying membrane proteins at the molecular level represents a major challenge in biochemistry due to the complexity of the membrane in which they are embedded. As an important step towards a detailed understanding of their action and molecular functioning, current studies focus on membrane proteins reconstituted into artificial lipid environments. Such reconstituted systems allow for a more flexible choice of biochemical, biophysical, and microscopy techniques for characterizing the proteins. This review gives an overview of the methods currently available for reconstituting membrane proteins in a functional state into giant unilamellar vesicles, and discusses some key methods to verify successful reconstitution.