Alternatives to Styrene- and Diisobutylene-Based Copolymers for Membrane Protein Solubilization via Nanodisc Formation.

Styrene-maleic acid copolymers (SMAs), and related amphiphilic copolymers, are promising tools for isolating and studying integral membrane proteins in a native-like state. However, they do not exhibit this ability universally, as several reports have found that SMAs and related amphiphilic copolymers show little to no efficiency when extracting specific membrane proteins. Recently, it was discovered that esterified SMAs could enhance the selective extraction of trimeric Photosystem I from the thylakoid membranes of thermophilic cyanobacteria; however, these polymers are susceptible to saponification that can result from harsh preparation or storage conditions.