Lipid Microdomains Flashcards
What two groups does the lipid membrane split into?
Liquid ordered
Liquid disordered
What are the characteristic of the liquid disordered membrane?
Loosely packed phospholipids
Rapid lateral diffusion
Made of phosphatidyl serine/ethanoamine/choline
What are the characteristics of the liquid ordered phase?
Compartmentalised lipid areas
Made up of cholesterol
Bilayer assembly more rigid which prevents lateral diffusion and makes it difficult to move things
What type of phospholipids make up the liquid ordered partition?
Glycosphingolipids
Sphingomyelin
Liquid ordered areas form lipid rafts. What are the two types of raft?
Planar (at membrane surface)
Calveolae (depressions in membrane caused by protein caveolin)
Molecular weight of caveolin
20KDa
Structure of caveolin?
Cytosolic N terminus
Enters membrane
Intramembrane fold
Cytosolic C terminus which is palmitolyated allowing anchoring to membrane (post translational modification)
Where a calveolae found?
Many cells types especially pulmonary vascular endothelial cells
How many genes encode for caveolin?
3 (Cav1,2 and 3)
Where is CaV1 expressed?
Ubiquitous but high levels on endothelial and SM cells
Where is Cav2 expressed?
Ubiquitous but high levels of endothelial and SM cells
Where is Cav3 expressed - why?
Muscle specific as promote region responds to myogenic transcription factors
What othe rproteins are important for caveolae formation?
Calvin (wraps around caveolin and coats caveolar surface (KO = no caveolae)
EHD2 - dynamin like protein important for invagination
What experiment can be done to separate liquid ordered and liquid disordered?
Fractionalisation
Add detergent at 4 degrees and rafts will fractionate in a sucrose density gradient (low to high in test tube)
Liquid disorder will not fractionated and will fall to bottom
Why do rafts show more ‘buoyantcy’?
Detergents will not degrade rafts therefore they will remain in the lower density fractions of the test tube