Fluorescence tools for studies of membrane protein insertion

A Flip Turn for Membrane Protein Insertion

The transmembrane domains in a membrane protein must be recognized and correctly oriented before their insertion into the lipid bilayer. Devaraneni et al. (2011) generate snapshots at different stages of membrane protein biogenesis, revealing a dynamic set of steps that imply an unexpectedly flexible membrane insertion machinery.

Fluorescence- based approach for bio-membrane studies

Microtechnologies for membrane protein studies

Despite the rapid and enormous progress in biotechnologies, the biochemical analysis of membrane proteins is still a difficult task. The presence of the large hydrophobic region buried in the lipid bilayer membrane (transmembrane domain) makes it difficult to analyze membrane proteins in standard assays developed for water-soluble proteins. To handle membrane proteins, the lipid bilayer membran...

Plant Mitochondrial Inner Membrane Protein Insertion

During the biogenesis of the mitochondrial inner membrane, most nuclear-encoded inner membrane proteins are laterally released into the membrane by the TIM23 and the TIM22 machinery during their import into mitochondria. A subset of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial inner membrane proteins and all the mitochondrial-encoded inner membrane proteins use the Oxa machinery-which is evolutionarily conser...

Membrane protein insertion at the endoplasmic reticulum.

Integral membrane proteins of the cell surface and most intracellular compartments of eukaryotic cells are assembled at the endoplasmic reticulum. Two highly conserved and parallel pathways mediate membrane protein targeting to and insertion into this organelle. The classical cotranslational pathway, utilized by most membrane proteins, involves targeting by the signal recognition particle follo...