Elliptical structure of phospholipid bilayer nanodiscs encapsulated by scaffold proteins: casting the roles of the lipids and the protein.

ABSTRACT: Phospholipid bilayers host and support the function of membrane proteins and may be stabilized in disc-like nanostructures, allowing for unprecedented solution studies of the assembly, structure, and function of membrane proteins (Bayburt et al. Nano Lett. 2002, 2, 853-856). Based on small-angle neutron scattering in combination with variable-temperature studies of synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering on nanodiscs in solution, we show that the fundamental nanodisc unit, consisting of a lipid bilayer surrounded by amphiphilic scaffold proteins, possesses intrinsically an elliptical shape. The temperature dependence of the curvature of the nanodiscs prepared with two different phospholipid types (DLPC and POPC) shows that it is the scaffold protein that determines the overall elliptical

SUBMITTER: Skar-Gislinge N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4120756 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature