膜科学技術ジャーナル

概要

The Hexagonal Lipid Phase's Role in Biological Membrane Organization

Peter Vedsted

All biological membranes include lipids that prefer to exist in a nonbilayer phase. Recent findings imply that membrane proteins in the thylakoid membrane urge all lipids to create a bilayer structure, and that non-bilayer-forming lipids in the thylakoid membrane help to drive the creation of membrane stacks. Lateral heterogeneities in biomembranes are important in a variety of cellular physiological activities. Demixing of lipid components and the creation of different liquid domains in the membrane are the result of such heterogeneities.