Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 22: Transport Processes and Cellular Trafficking

BP 22.9: Talk

Thursday, March 26, 2009, 16:45–17:00, ZEU 260

Hydrophobic Mismatch: A universal Tool for Clustering, Demixing and Sorting of Transmembrane Proteins — •Ulrich Schmidt, Gernot Guigas, and Matthias Weiss — German Cancer Research Center, Cellular Biophysics Group (BIOMS), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg

Sorting of transmembrane proteins is a central task of eukaryotic cells, in particular in the secretory pathway. Due to a lack of an organizing mastermind, the decision wether a membrane protein participates in secretory transport or not has to be made by a self-organizing process on the molecular scale, e.g. via cluster formation. We show by means of coarse-grained membrane simulations that hydrophobic mismatching can drive cluster formation of transmembrane proteins [1]. Also, proteins with different degrees of hydrophobic mismatching can segregate and form homo-oligomers. In addition, we show that proteins partition into the lipid phase with the smallest hydrophobic mismatch if the membrane has a heterogeneous composition. Our data thus indicate that hydrophobic mismatching may help to organize trafficking along the secretory pathway in living cells.

[1] U. Schmidt, G. Guigas & M. Weiss, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 128104 (2008)