2020 journal article

How Membrane Geometry Regulates Protein Sorting Independently of Mean Curvature

ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE, 6(7), 1159–1168.

By: J. Larsen*, K. Rosholm*, C. Kennard*, S. Pedersen*, H. Munch*, V. Tkach*, J. Sakon n, T. Bjornholm* ...

co-author countries: Denmark 🇩🇰 United States of America 🇺🇸
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 24, 2020

Biological membranes have distinct geometries that confer specific functions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the phenomenological geometry/function correlations remain elusive. We studied the effect of membrane geometry on the localization of membrane-bound proteins. Quantitative comparative experiments between the two most abundant cellular membrane geometries, spherical and cylindrical, revealed that geometry regulates the spatial segregation of proteins. The measured geometry-driven segregation reached 50-fold for membranes of the same mean curvature, demonstrating a crucial and hitherto unaccounted contribution by Gaussian curvature. Molecular-field theory calculations elucidated the underlying physical and molecular mechanisms. Our results reveal that distinct membrane geometries have specific physicochemical properties and thus establish a ubiquitous mechanistic foundation for unravelling the conserved correlations between biological function and membrane polymorphism.