Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Posters: Membranes and Vesicles

BP 26.5: Poster

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Shape as a determinant of membrane protein cluster formation — •Gernot Guigas and Matthias Weiss — Experimental Physics I, University of Bayreuth

Clustering of membrane proteins is a key event in many vital cellular processes, for example during protein sorting or signal transduction. Recent studies have shown that protein clustering can be caused by non-specific attractive interactions between proteins which arise from a hydrophobic mismatch between the membrane and the hydrophobic domain of transmembrane proteins. Here, we show by means of mesoscopic membrane simulations that protein interactions due to a hydrophobic mismatch do not necessarily need to be attractive but can also be repulsive. Key parameter for the character of the interaction is the geometrical shape of the interacting proteins' hydrophobic domains. Attraction of two proteins is observed when they can establish a maximum interfacial contact by adsorbing to each other along the full length of their hydrophobic domains. In contrast, two proteins repell each other when only a pointwise interfacial contact is possible. A geometry-dependent attraction and repulsion hence can fine-tune protein oligomerization events.