Interactions Between Membrane Proteins and Membrane Lipids
A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Biophysics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 1167
Special Issue Editor
Interests: membrane protein; structural biology; cryo-EM; X-ray crystallography; enzyme; channel; receptor; transporter; structure-based drug discovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In all living species, membrane proteins serve a variety of essential functions. Protein–lipid interactions are often disregarded due to technological constraints; however, it is gradually becoming apparent that lipid molecules are essential to the structural and functional integrity of numerous membrane proteins. In the past, detergents have been employed to extract and characterize membrane proteins. However, the use of detergent-based methods frequently results in the overdelipidation of membrane proteins. Occasionally, some tightly associated lipids have also been detected in membrane protein structures obtained using detergent-based methods. The structural and functional study of membrane proteins has been particularly popularized through the reconstitution of detergent-prepared membrane proteins into nanodiscs or proteoliposomes. Both methods create a lipid habitat for membrane proteins; however, these lipid environments are not identical to those of the normal cell membrane. In situ cryo-EM tomography, single-particle cryo-EM analysis of native cell membrane nanoparticles, and membrane vesicles have recently emerged as powerful detergent-free options, allowing us to deepen our comprehension of the natural structures and functions of biologically and biomedically significant biomacromolecules by decoding membrane-protein–lipid interactions.
This Special Issue offers an exceptional opportunity to gather authors who are interested in membrane-protein–lipid interactions, to discuss the most recent developments.
Dr. Youzhong Guo
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- membrane protein
- lipid bilayer
- enzyme
- channel
- receptor
- transporter
- cryo-EM
- X-ray crystallography
- structural biology
- drug target
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