Decoupling of liquid ordered domains in model membranes

描述(由申请人提供)：膜结构域被广泛假设为直接影响从病毒进入细胞到细胞信号和胞吐的各种生物过程。许多这样的过程涉及外部小叶刺激与内部小叶反应的耦合，例如在免疫信号中，但这种耦合的机制在实验上尚未确定。在模型膜系统中，如巨大的单层囊泡，液体结构域很容易通过荧光显微镜成像，并在对称的双层上彼此配准。这项建议的工作旨在了解脂类结构域如何相互作用和耦合，在对称模型双层和不对称模型双层中，后者更接近于质膜的组成。通过在平面Montal-Mueller双层膜的两个薄片之间引入烷烃，改变温度和电场，将实现对双层膜和烷烃层厚度的精确控制。通过这种方式，两个传单相互作用的机制的具体假设将得到检验。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Membrane domains are widely hypothesized to directly influence a variety of biological processes from viral entry into cells to cellular signaling and exocytosis. Many such processes involve coupling of an outer leaflet stimulus to inner leaflet reactions, as in immune signaling, but the mechanism of this coupling is experimentally undetermined. In model membrane systems such as giant unilamellar vesicles, liquid domains are easily imaged by fluorescence microscopy and are in registry with each other across the symmetric bilayer. The work in this proposal aims to understand how lipid domains interact and couple to each other, in both symmetric model bilayers, and asymmetric model bilayers which more closely mimic the composition of the plasma membrane. By introducing alkanes in between the two leaflets of a planar Montal-Mueller bilayer, land varying the temperature and electrical field, exquisite control over the bilayer and alkane layer thickness will be achieved. In this way, specific hypotheses of the mechanism by which the two leaflets interact will be tested.