2020 article

How Membrane Geometry Regulates Protein Sorting Independently of Mean Curvature

Larsen, J. B., Rosholm, K. R., Kennard, C., Pedersen, S. L., Munch, H. K., Tkach, V., … Stamou, D. (2020, June 23). ACS Central Science, Vol. 6, pp. 1159–1168.

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

topics (OpenAlex): Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior; Cellular transport and secretion; Biochemical and Structural Characterization; Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology; Glycosylation and Glycoproteins Research
TL;DR: The 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. (via Semantic Scholar)
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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.