Solubilization of lipids and lipid phases by the styrene-maleic acid copolymer.

ABSTRACT: A promising tool in membrane research is the use of the styrene-maleic acid (SMA) copolymer to solubilize membranes in the form of nanodiscs. Since membranes are heterogeneous in composition, it is important to know whether SMA thereby has a preference for solubilization of either specific types of lipids or specific bilayer phases. Here, we investigated this by performing partial solubilization of model membranes and analyzing the lipid composition of the solubilized fraction. We found that SMA displays no significant lipid preference in homogeneous binary lipid mixtures in the fluid phase, even when using lipids that by themselves show very different solubilization kinetics. By contrast, in heterogeneous phase-separated bilayers, SMA was found to have a strong preference for solubilizati

SUBMITTER: Dominguez Pardo JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5209432 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature