Bacteriorhodopsin remains dispersed in fluid phospholipid bilayers over a wide range of bilayer thicknesses.
J Mol Biol
; 166(2): 203-10, 1983 May 15.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-6854643
ABSTRACT
We have used vesicles made from delipidated bacteriorhodopsin and synthetic lecithins to address the following questions. If the transmembrane dimension of a protein hydrophobic surface differs from the equilibrium thickness of its lipid bilayer environment, will protein monomers aggregate to decrease the protein-lipid contact surface area? If so, how large must the difference be to induce aggregation? Using lecithins with acyl chains from di-100 to di-241, the thickness of the bilayer hydrocarbon region above the lipid phase transition temperature (tm) was varied from 14.5 A less than to 7.5 A more than the transmembrane dimension of the bacteriorhodopsin hydrophobic region. Bacteriorhodopsin remains dispersed when the surrounding bilayer hydrophobic region is 4 A thicker or 10 A thinner than the bacteriorhodopsin hydrophobic surface. Only the thin- (100) and thick- (241) bilayer samples showed any bacteriorhodopsin aggregation above tm. Thus a surprisingly large difference between protein and lipid hydrophobic thicknesses can be accommodated without protein aggregation. The lipid bilayer can evidently sustain large local distortions with a small change in free energy.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Bacteriorodopsinas
/
Carotenoides
/
Membrana Dobles de Lípidos
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Mol Biol
Año:
1983
Tipo del documento:
Article