相关论文: Spontaneous Lipid Binding to the Nicotinic Acetylc…
Reconstituted nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) exhibit significant gain-of-function upon addition of cholesterol to reconstitution mixtures, and cholesterol affects organization of nAChRs within domain-forming membranes, but…
At the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) self-associates to give rise to rapid muscle movement. While lipid domains have maintained nAChR aggregates in-vitro, their specific roles in nAChR clustering…
The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) is the prototypic member of the `Cys-loop' superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels which mediate synaptic neurotransmission, and whose other members include receptors for glycine,…
Translational motion of neurotransmitter receptors is key for determining receptor number at the synapse and hence, synaptic efficacy. We combine live-cell STORM superresolution microscopy of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) with…
The supramolecular assembly of lipids into bilayer membranes is essential for cellular structure and function. However, the impact of lipid structural variations such as acyl chain length, degree of unsaturation, and headgroup type on…
To what extent must a hydrophobic gate expand for the channel to count as open? We address this question using the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) as the exemplar. The nAChR is an integral membrane protein which forms a cation…
Phospholipids are essential building blocks of biological membranes. Despite of vast amount of accurate experimental data the atomistic resolution structures sampled by the glycerol backbone and choline headgroup in phoshatidylcholine…
The cell membrane is inherently asymmetric and heterogeneous in its composition, a feature that is crucial for its function. Using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, the physical properties of a 3-component asymmetric mixed lipid…
Monolayer spontaneous curvatures for cholesterol, DOPE, POPE, DOPC, DPPC, DSPC, POPC, SOPC, and egg sphingomyelin were obtained using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) on inverted hexagonal phases (HII). Spontaneous curvatures of bilayer…
Mechanotransduction, the biological response to mechanical stress, is often initiated by the activation of mechanosensitive (MS) proteins upon mechanically induced deformations of the cell membrane. A current challenge to fully understand…
Although 1-alkanols are widely used as anesthetics and membrane-active agents, the molecular basis of their chain-length-dependent cutoff behavior remains unclear. Here, we perform extensive atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to…
We report a combined dynamic light scattering and neutron spin-echo (NSE) study on vesicles composed of the phospholipid 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine under the influence of varying amounts of perfluorooctanoic acid. We…
The pathogenesis and progression of many tumors, including hematologic malignancies is highly dependent on enhanced lipogenesis. De novo fatty-acid synthesis permits accelerated proliferation of tumor cells by providing structural…
We present a new approach to nicotinic receptor kinetics and a new model explaining random variabilities in the duration of open events. The model gives new interpretation on brief and long receptor openings and predicts (for two identical…
Protein fibril accumulation at interfaces is an important step in many physiological processes and neurodegenerative diseases as well as in designing materials. Here we show, using $\beta$-lactoglobulin fibrils as a model, that semiflexible…
The connection between membrane inhomogeneity and the structural basis of lipid rafts has sparked interest in the lateral organization of model lipid bilayers of two and three components. In an effort to investigate anisotropic lipid…
Optical nanoantennas can efficiently confine light into nanoscopic hotspots, enabling single-molecule detection sensitivity at biological relevant conditions. This innovative approach to breach the diffraction limit offers a versatile…
We consider a model of lipids in which a head group, characterized by its volume, is attached to two flexible tails of equal length. The phase diagram of the anhydrous lipid is obtained within self-consistent field theory, and displays, as…
Much of our understanding of the physical properties of raft domains in biological membranes, and some insight into the mechanisms underlying their formation stem from atomistic simulations of simple model systems, especially ternary…
The anchoring of the nematic liquid crystal N-(p-methoxybenzylidene)-p-butylaniline (MBBA) on Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of fatty acids (COOHC$_{n}$H$_{2n+1}$) was studied as a function of the length of the fatty acid alkyl chains, $n$…