Membrane proteins Lectures Flashcards
What is the function of the secretory pathway?
It is a transport system between several types of organelles and the cell surface (plasma membrane)
There is synthesis of proteins and lipids at the ER
There is traffic through the golgi to the plasma membrane
and there is internalization through endosomes to degradation in lysosomes.
What is an example of an organelle not connected to the secretory pathway?
The mitochondria is not connected
What is Lumen?
- It is the interior of secretory organelles and it is continuous with each other and the extracellular space.
- The lumenal environment contains salts, pH, proteins, and co factors are is similar to the extracellular space (blood plasma)
Is lumen similar to cytosol?
No it is different. But cytosol is still intra-cellular fluid that is present inside cells.
When vesicles bud from one organelle membrane and fuse with another, do they release their contents into the cytosol?
No they do not release their contents
What are some important functions that biological membranes fulfill?
- Provide enclosure to cell, and to organelles within cells
- allow regulated transport of materials between compartments
- provide sites within cells for biochemical reactions, photosyntehsis, oxidative phosphorylation, metabolism of biological molecules (lipids, glycans, others)
- support contacts with the environment outside cells (cell motion, recognition of other cells, cell fusion)
- transmssion of signals from exterior to interior of cells.
What are 5 properties of membranes?
1) Form hydrophobic barriers between aqueous compartments within the cell (cytosol and organellar lumens )
2) Flexible and can be formed into different shapes
3) selectively permeable to small hydrophobic molecules, but not to large or charged/polar molecules
4) Specialized protein complexes control the movement of impermeable molecules across membranes
5) Can store energy as concentration gradients (voltage (nerve cells), pH, potassium, sodium, calcium gradients)
What is meant by the Fluid Mosaic Model (membranes)?
- Membranes are made of lipid molecules and membrane proteins
- Lipids are organized into a bilayer: a sheet is polar on each side and hydrophobic in the middle
- Hydrophobicity acts as a barrier to water-soluble molecules
- Membrane proteins can rotate and diffuse laterally in the fluid bilayer
What are the major membrane lipids?
1) Phospholipids - in all membranes
2) Glycolipids - only at plasma membrane
3) Cholesterol
All have polar and hydrophobic sections (main characteristic)
Lipid composition determines physical properties of membrane, mobility (diffusion, rotation) and curvature, thickness.
What are phospholipids?
- They are the most abundant lipid
- Polar head groups
Choline or other charged group
Phosphate and glycerol
Classification by head groups
Phophatidyl- choline (PC) - ethanolamine (PE), serine (PS) are the most common - sphingomyelin (SM) is not glycerolipid but it is related
- Phosphatidyl-inositol (PI) is not abundant but can be phosphorylated and act as a signalling molecule.
-The head grpup size and charge effect lipids mobility
- 2 fatty acid tails
Different lengths
Saturated (no double bonds) or unstaurated (1 or more double bonds)
Hydrocarbon chain or usually 14 to 24 carbons
Varying number of double bonds
Saturated tails are straighter and more flexible
Double bonds introduce bends in the tail, reduce flexibility and overall length
The types of tails in membrane determine its thickness and fluidity
Where are glycolipids found? Why are they important?
They are found on the outside surface of the plasma membrane.
The head groups contain different sugar groups in many combinations.
It is important for cell contact with the environment and other cells.
What is the structure of cholesterol? How does this affect its mobility?
- Cholesterol is structurally different from other lipids
- The steroid ring structure makes it very rigid, lateral mobility and the rotation is much lower.
- Reduces the mobility of surrounding phospholipids, which makes the fatty acid tails more rigid.
Are membranes asymmetric? If so, why?
- Many biological membranes are asymmetric meaning tge lipid composition on each side is different
- This is important for its function
- The exterior has glycolipids
- The interior has stronger negative charge (high PS levels)
The assymetry is not absolute, but it is actievely managed.
What has the higher level of cholestrol?
The plasma membrane
Where do you find the highest levels of PC and PE?
In the ER and mitochondria.
What are microdomains?
Microdomains are regions of a membrane that are organized laterally (sideways) in patches.
Where are there specialized microdomains, what are they called?
The plasma membrane and trans-golgi have special microdomains called lipid rafts. They are thicker than surrounding membrane and enriched in cholesterol. Lipids with longer tails cluster together in rafts. The cholecterol binding straightens lipid tails and causes a thicker membrane, they have a different protein content and biological function.
What is the synthesis of phospholipids?
- They are synthesized on the cytosolic side of the ER membrane.
- Fatty acids (acyls) are attached to Coenzyme A in chemically reactive states.
- Glycerol-phosphate, head group added in sequence by enzymes.
Describe lipid synthesis.
- Phospholipids and cholesterol are synthesized on the cytosolic side of the ER membrane.
- There is a scramble of proteins in the ER membrane that flip lipids randomly. This is an ATP-independent function.
- Lipids are transported through secretory pathway by vesicles.
How is asymmetry in the membrane maintained?
At the plasma membrane, flippase proteins are what maintain asymmetry. This function is ATP-dependent, directional, and lipid-specific. New lipids are brought the the plasma membrane by vesicle, and then they are flipped to the correct orientation!
How are lipids transported?
Lipids are transported by:
1) vesicles between organelles of the secretory pathway
2) by carrier proteins through the cytosol
3) through contact sites between organelles (ER and mitochondria)
Are soluble proteins associated with membranes?
Soluble proteins are not associated.
What does the localization of membrane proteins require?
Requires protein-based targeting mechanisms
Does the structure of membrane proteins involve added contacts with lipids?
Yes
How are integral membrane proteins tightly anchored?
They are tightly anchored by hydrophobic interactions with the interior of the lipid bilayer. Involves 1 or more transmembrane alpha-helices.
Describe Membrane Biogenesis:
- Cellular membranes can only be made by expanding pre existing membranes
- With very few exceptions, all proteins are encoded by nuclear genes and translation in the cytosol
- After, proteins must be sorted to their correct compartment or membrane. The sorting information is carried inside the proteins themselves.
- ER membrane is where proteins are translated, and the lumen of the ER.
Where are secretory proteins inserted and where do they transport to?
- Secretory pathway proteins are inserted into or across the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. They are then transported to further compartments such as the Golgi, Plasma membrane, endosomes and lysosomes.
What is a key difference between the Rough ER and the smooth ER?
- In the rough ER, there are many attached ribosomes, and there is secretory protein synthesis.
- In the smooth ER, there are no ribosomes, and it is the site of lipid synthesis.
What is a targeting signal?
- Sequences within a protein that specify its organelle localization, it is a ‘zip code” or a signal peptide.
- Are often independent from the structure or biochemical function of proteins.
- recognized by a pattern, usually not an exact sequence.
Can targeting signals be removed?
May be removed by proteolysis after targeting is complete, or form part of the native structure.
What are the 3 targeting steps?
1) Recognize a signal on a protein
2) Connect protein to the membrane
3) Translocate protein into or across the membrane
What exits through the ribosome exit tunnel? How does this work?
- Nascent polypeptides exit the ribosome through a tunnel in the large (60s) subunit
- The tunnel is neutral, polar, too small for tertiary folding
- Surface around exit site provides binding sites for ER targeting mechanism
- 30 to 40 amino acids of nascent polypeptide between peptidyl-transferase site end the exit site
What do secretory signal peptides direct?
They direct proteins to the ER for translocation into or across the membrane.
- Mostly co-translationally
Some secretory pathway proteins have additional targeting signals that direct them to organelles. What are two examples of these?
1) Often could be a polypeptide motif (a sequence pattern)
2) Sometimes it could be a post-translational modification