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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Co-Translational Insertion of Membrane Proteins into Preformed Nanodiscs
Published on: November 19, 2020
DNA-Corralled Nanodiscs for the Structural and Functional Characterization of Membrane Proteins and Viral Entry
Zhao Zhao1, Meng Zhang2, James M Hogle2
1Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard , Boston , Massachusetts 02115 , United States.
Abstract:
Here we present a modular method for manufacturing large-sized nanodiscs using DNA-origami barrels as scaffolding corrals. Large-sized nanodiscs can be produced by first decorating the inside of DNA barrels with small lipid-bilayer nanodiscs, which open up when adding extra lipid to form large nanodiscs of diameters ∼45 or ∼70 nm as prescribed by the enclosing barrel dimension. Densely packed membrane protein arrays are then reconstituted within these large nanodiscs for potential structure determination. Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential of these nanodiscs as model membranes to study poliovirus entry.
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