Lipid Rafts Assemble Dynein Ensembles

[Imaging lipid rafts].

Lipid rafts are plasma membrane microdomains enriched in sphingolipids and cholesterol. These domains have been suggested to serve as platforms for various cellular events, such as signaling and membrane trafficking. However, little is known about the distribution and dynamics of lipids in these microdomains. Here we report investigations carried out using recently developed probes for the lipi...

Fire ants self-assemble into waterproof rafts to survive floods.

Why does a single fire ant Solenopsis invicta struggle in water, whereas a group can float effortlessly for days? We use time-lapse photography to investigate how fire ants S. invicta link their bodies together to build waterproof rafts. Although water repellency in nature has been previously viewed as a static material property of plant leaves and insect cuticles, we here demonstrate a self-as...

Cholesterol, lipid rafts, and disease.

Recent controversy surrounding lipid rafts.

Lipid rafts (LRs)are highly enriched in glycosphingolipids, sphingomyelins, and cholesterol membrane microdomains, existing in a liquid-ordered phase of the plasma membrane. In the literature, LRs are also known as detergent-insoluble membranes, detergent-resistant membranes, glycosphingolipids-enriched membranes, detergent-insoluble glycolipid-rich membranes, and Triton-insoluble floating frac...

Lipid Rafts Elusive or Illusive?

There has been considerable recent interest in the possibility that the plasma membrane contains lipid "rafts," microdomains enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids. It has been suggested that such rafts could play an important role in many cellular processes including signal transduction, membrane trafficking, cytoskeletal organization, and pathogen entry. However, rafts have proven difficul...