introduction: we have recently reported the presence of two potassium currents with 598 and 368 ps conductance in the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rer) membrane. the 598 ps channel was voltage dependent and atp sensitive. however, the 368 ps channel was rarely observed and its identity remained obscure. since cationic channels in intracellular organelles such as mitochondria and rer play import...

The dengue virion is surrounded by an envelope of membrane proteins surrounding a lipid bilayer. We have combined the cryoelectron microscopy structures of the membrane proteins (PDB: 3J27) with a lipid bilayer whose composition is based on lipidomics data for insect cell membranes, to obtain a near-atomic resolution computational model of the envelope of the dengue virion. A coarse-grained mol...

A microfluidic platform enabling optical monitoring of bilayer lipid membrane formation by a new monolayer folding process is described. The thermoplastic chips integrate dried lipid films that are rehydrated by microfluidic perfusion, which enables delivery of lipid-laden air bubbles across a membrane-supporting aperture. As in traditional Montal-Mueller bilayer formation, lipid monolayers are...

A simple method for modifying a polymer surface to induce lipid bilayer formation by vesicle fusion is described. A silicate gel was prepared by condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in the presence of acid. When applied to a poly(methylmethacrylate) substrate, either a rough or a smooth layer could be produced, depending on the method used for the application. The smooth surface indu...

Membrane proteins are regulated by the lipid bilayer composition. Specific lipid-protein interactions rarely are involved, which suggests that the regulation is due to changes in some general bilayer property (or properties). The hydrophobic coupling between a membrane-spanning protein and the surrounding bilayer means that protein conformational changes may be associated with a reversible, loc...

Molecular-dynamics simulations covering 30 ns of both a natural and a synthetic antimicrobial peptide in the presence of a zwitterionic lipid bilayer were performed. In both simulations, copies of the peptides were placed in an alpha-helical conformation on either side of the bilayer about 10 A (1 A=0.1 nm) from the interface, with either the hydrophobic or the positively charged face of the he...

New methods toward manipulation and study of membrane species within a lipid bilayer platform are desired because lipid bilayers are able to maintain native conformation and function of intrinsic membrane species. This report demonstrates design and use of a bilayer patterned device for separation, sorting, and categorization of membrane biomolecules based on their affinity for different co-exi...

The droplet interface bilayer (DIB)--a method to assemble planar lipid bilayer membranes between lipid-coated aqueous droplets--has gained popularity among researchers in many fields. Well-packed lipid monolayer on aqueous droplet-oil interfaces is a prerequisite for successfully assembling DIBs. Such monolayers can be achieved by two different techniques: "lipid-in", in which phospholipids in ...