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Related Experiment Videos

Membrane fission by protein crowding.

Wilton T Snead1, Carl C Hayden1, Avinash K Gadok1

  • 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|April 5, 2017
PubMed
Summary

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This summary is machine-generated.

Membrane fission, essential for cells, can be driven by steric pressure from crowded proteins, not just protein structure. This pressure increases membrane curvature, leading to spontaneous fission events.

Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Membrane fission is crucial for cellular compartmentalization.
  • Proteins with specific structures (rings, helices, hydrophobic insertions) are traditionally considered key drivers of fission.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate an alternative mechanism of membrane fission driven by steric pressure.
  • To challenge the established view that hydrophobic insertions are the primary drivers of membrane fission.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) to measure membrane coverage.
  • Employed multiple independent assays to quantify membrane vesiculation.
  • Experimentally replaced protein structural elements (e.g., helices) with synthetic motifs.

Main Results:

Keywords:
endocytosismembrane biophysicsmembrane fissionmembrane traffic

Related Experiment Videos

  • Membrane fission efficiency correlated with membrane coverage and increased steric pressure, independent of insertion hydrophobicity.
  • Fission occurred spontaneously as steric pressure rose.
  • Even non-structured proteins like green fluorescent protein (GFP) drove fission effectively at high membrane coverage.

Conclusions:

  • Steric pressure, generated by protein crowding, is a significant, structure-independent driver of membrane fission.
  • Hydrophobic insertions may primarily serve to anchor proteins, thereby amplifying steric pressure.
  • Protein structure is not the sole determinant; membrane coverage and resulting pressure are critical for fission.