Phosphatidylinositol-based probes of membranes, proteins, and enzymes.

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Cells contain areas filled with water and others filled with fats and lipids. Biological membranes, the barriers that surround cells and their internal organelles, are composed of lipids that have very poor solubility in water. There are times, however, when a cell requires that lipids be moved from one place to another. Researchers have discovered proteins that are capable of picking up specific lipids and moving them from one membrane location to another. Many of these proteins, generically termed “lipid transfer proteins”, have been discovered and described over the last 50 years. But their names may have obscured our thinking about the true function of these proteins. In fact, demonstrating the ability of these proteins to transfer lipids in living cells is not trivial. We have made fluorescent probes to follow just this sort of action for the protein that transfers vitamin E around mammalian cells. We have also explored the function of phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (PITPs) that carry certain phospholipids. These proteins are critical for the survival of yeast, and mutations of the mammalian forms result in a variety of neurological diseases and developmental problems.