Identifying optimal lipid raft characteristics required to promote nanoscale protein-protein interactions on the plasma membrane.

ABSTRACT: The dynamic lateral segregation of signaling proteins into microdomains is proposed to facilitate signal transduction, but the constraints on microdomain size, mobility, and diffusion that might realize this function are undefined. Here we interrogate a stochastic spatial model of the plasma membrane to determine how microdomains affect protein dynamics. Taking lipid rafts as representative microdomains, we show that reduced protein mobility in rafts segregates dynamically partitioning proteins, but the equilibrium concentration is largely independent of raft size and mobility. Rafts weakly impede small-scale protein diffusion but more strongly impede long-range protein mobility. The long-range mobility of raft-partitioning and raft-excluded proteins, however, is reduced to a similar exten

SUBMITTER: Nicolau DV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1317633 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature