Intracellular Protein-Lipid Interactions Studied by Rapid-Scan Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Protein-membrane interactions play key roles in essential cellular processes; studying these interactions in the cell is a challenging task of modern biophysical chemistry. A prominent example is the interaction of human α-synuclein (αS) with negatively charged membranes. It has been well-studied in vitro, but in spite of the huge amount of lipid membranes in the crowded environment of biological cells, to date, no interactions have been detected in cells. Here, we use rapid-scan (RS) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to study αS interactions with negatively charged vesicles in vitro and upon transfection of the protein and lipid vesicles into model cells, i.e., oocytes of Xenopus laevis. We show that protein-vesicle interactions are reflected in RS spectra in vitro and in cells, which enables time-resolved monitoring of protein-membrane interaction upon transfection into cells. Our data suggest binding of a small fraction of αS to endogenous membranes.