pH-Dependent Formation and Disintegration of the Influenza A Virus Protein Scaffold To Provide Tension for Membrane Fusion.

Unlabelled: Influenza virus is taken up from a pH-neutral extracellular milieu into an endosome, whose contents then acidify, causing changes in the viral matrix protein (M1) that coats the inner monolayer of the viral lipid envelope. At a pH of ~6, M1 interacts with the viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) in a putative priming stage; at this stage, the interactions of the M1 scaffold coating the lipid envelope are intact. The M1 coat disintegrates as acidification continues to a pH of ~5 to clear a physical path for the viral genome to transit from the viral interior to the cytoplasm.

Domain formation in membranes caused by lipid wetting of protein.

Formation of rafts and other domains in cell membranes is considered as wetting of proteins by lipids. The membrane is modeled as a continuous elastic medium. Thermodynamic functions of the lipid films that wet proteins are calculated using a mean-field theory of liquid crystals as adapted to biomembranes.

Interaction of pyridinium bis-retinoid (A2E) with bilayer lipid membranes.

The accumulation of lipofuscin granules within the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells is correlated with the progression of age-related macular degeneration. One of the fluorophores contained in lipofiscin granules is pyridinium bis-retinoid (A2E). To test its membrane-toxic effect, the interaction of A2E with bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) was studied.

"Entropic traps" in the kinetics of phase separation in multicomponent membranes stabilize nanodomains.

We quantitatively describe the creation and evolution of phase-separated domains in a multicomponent lipid bilayer membrane. The early stages, termed the nucleation stage and the independent growth stage, are extremely rapid (characteristic times are submillisecond and millisecond, respectively) and the system consists of nanodomains of average radius approximately 5-50 nm. Next, mobility of domains becomes consequential; domain merger and fission become the dominant mechanisms of matter exchange, and line tension gamma is the main determinant of the domain size distribution at any point in time.

Line tension and interaction energies of membrane rafts calculated from lipid splay and tilt.

Membrane domains known as rafts are rich in cholesterol and sphingolipids, and are thought to be thicker than the surrounding membrane. If so, monolayers should elastically deform so as to avoid exposure of hydrophobic surfaces to water at the raft boundary. We calculated the energy of splay and tilt deformations necessary to avoid such hydrophobic exposure.