Plant lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are members of the pathogenesis-related proteins (PR-14) and some of them exhibit activity against phytopathogenic fungi. To investigate whether rice LTP2 plays a role in antifungal activity, the coding region of an Iranian rice Ltp2 gene was cloned into expression vector pET24-d(+) and then expressed in Escherichia coli Rosetta strain (DE3). The potential a...

Very few lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) have been caught in the act of transferring lipids in vivo from a donor membrane to an acceptor membrane. Now, two studies (Halter, D., S. Neumann, S.M. van Dijk, J. Wolthoorn, A.M. de Maziere, O.V. Vieira, P. Mattjus, J. Klumperman, G. van Meer, and H. Sprong. 2007. J. Cell Biol. 179:101-115; D'Angelo, G., E. Polishchuk, G.D. Tullio, M. Santoro, A.D. Cam...

This study investigates the ability of human plasmaderived lipid transfer protein to facilitate lipid transfer to and from intact viable cells in culture. Mouse peritoneal macrophages or 5774 macrophages were preincubated with acetylated low density lipoprotein and [3H]oleate/albumin to promote the intracellular synthesis and accumulation of cholesteryl [ 3H]oleate and 3H-labeled triglyceride. ...

Lipid droplets are intracellular energy storage organelles composed of a hydrophobic core of neutral lipid, surrounded by a monolayer of phospholipid and a diverse array of proteins. The function of the vast majority of these proteins with regard to the formation and/or turnover of lipid droplets is unknown. Our laboratory was the first to report that microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (M...

Quantification of lipid selectivity by membrane proteins has been previously addressed mainly from electron spin resonance studies. We present here a new methodology for quantification of protein-lipid selectivity based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer. A mutant of M13 major coat protein was labeled with 7-diethylamino-3((4'iodoacetyl)amino)phenyl-4-methylcoumarin to be used as the don...