Lipid Driven Nanodomains in Giant Lipid Vesicles are Fluid and Disordered.

ABSTRACT: It is a fundamental question in cell biology and biophysics whether sphingomyelin (SM)- and cholesterol (Chol)- driven nanodomains exist in living cells and in model membranes. Biophysical studies on model membranes revealed SM and Chol driven micrometer-sized liquid-ordered domains. Although the existence of such microdomains has not been proven for the plasma membrane, such lipid mixtures have been often used as a model system for 'rafts'. On the other hand, recent super resolution and single molecule results indicate that the plasma membrane might organize into nanocompartments. However, due to the limited resolution of those techniques their unambiguous characterization is still missing. In this work, a novel combination of Förster resonance energy transfer and Monte Carlo simulations

SUBMITTER: Koukalova A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5511215 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature