Up Close with Membrane Lipid-Protein Complexes

摘要

Cells, and the organelles within them, are surrounded by lipid-bilayer membranes that compartmentalize biochemical reactions and pathways. Membrane-embedded proteins control the flux of molecules, energy, and information such that the segregated compartments function as a unified living cell. Traditionally, membrane proteins were pictured as floating around quite independently of the surrounding lipids, yet when this fluid-mosaic model was described, Singer and Nicolson qualified that "a small fraction of the lipid may interact specifically with the membrane proteins" (7).