The effectiveness of styrene-maleic acid (SMA) copolymers for solubilisation of integral membrane proteins from SMA-accessible and SMA-resistant membranes.

ABSTRACT: Solubilisation of biological lipid bilayer membranes for analysis of their protein complement has traditionally been carried out using detergents, but there is increasing interest in the use of amphiphilic copolymers such as styrene maleic acid (SMA) for the solubilisation, purification and characterisation of integral membrane proteins in the form of protein/lipid nanodiscs. Here we survey the effectiveness of various commercially-available formulations of the SMA copolymer in solubilising Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction centres (RCs) from photosynthetic membranes. We find that formulations of SMA with a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of styrene to maleic acid are almost as effective as detergent in solubilising RCs, with the best solubilisation by short chain variants (<30kDa weight average molecular

SUBMITTER: Swainsbury DJK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5593810 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature