Development of novel nano discs for structural analysis of membrane proteins

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New agents for solubilization of membrane proteins were designed to cover hydrophobic surface of proteins with bilayer-like orientations. A phosphatidylcholine-based solubilizing agent was synthesized by substituting one acyl chain with a detergent. The agent was found to stably solubilize bacteriorhodopsins with lower denaturing effect compared with conventional detergents. Only ~30 molecules were required for solubilization of one bacteriophodopsin. These promising results indicate that the agent has superior properties for structural studies of membrane proteins.