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Updated: Mar 10, 2026

Using Scaffold Liposomes to Reconstitute Lipid-proximal Protein-protein Interactions In Vitro
Published on: January 11, 2017
Suppressing membrane height fluctuations leads to a membrane-mediated interaction among proteins
1Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
Abstract:
Membrane-induced interactions can play a significant role in the spatial distribution of membrane-bound proteins. We develop a model that combines a continuum description of lipid bilayers with a discrete particle model of proteins to probe the emerging structure of the combined membrane-protein system. Our model takes into account the membrane's elastic behavior, the steric repulsion between proteins, and the quenching of membrane shape fluctuations due to the presence of the proteins. We employ coupled Langevin equations to describe the dynamics of the system. We show that coupling to the membrane induces an attractive interaction among proteins, which may contribute to the clustering of proteins in biological membranes. We investigate the lateral protein diffusion and find that it is reduced due to transient fluctuations in membrane shape.
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