AI Article Synopsis
- Cellular membranes' shape is crucial for their structure and function, particularly during processes like cell division and organelle formation.
- The synthetic membrane shaper (SMS) is a DNA-nanotechnology tool that uses cholesterol-linked DNA to create stable shapes like stomatocytes and dumbbells in liposomes.
- This approach allows for the integration of bacterial proteins at the membrane's neck, facilitating research on protein interactions with unique membrane shapes, benefiting synthetic cell studies.
Article Abstract
Shape defines the structure and function of cellular membranes. In cell division, the cell membrane deforms into a "dumbbell" shape, while organelles such as the autophagosome exhibit "stomatocyte" shapes. Bottom-up in vitro reconstitution of protein machineries that stabilize or resolve the membrane necks in such deformed liposome structures is of considerable interest to characterize their function. Here we develop a DNA-nanotechnology-based approach that we call the synthetic membrane shaper (SMS), where cholesterol-linked DNA structures attach to the liposome membrane to reproducibly generate high yields of stomatocytes and dumbbells. In silico simulations confirm the shape-stabilizing role of the SMS. We show that the SMS is fully compatible with protein reconstitution by assembling bacterial divisome proteins (DynaminA, FtsZ:ZipA) at the catenoidal neck of these membrane structures. The SMS approach provides a general tool for studying protein binding to complex membrane geometries that will greatly benefit synthetic cell research.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9878720 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c06125 | DOI Listing |
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