title: Crystallizing membrane proteins using lipidic bicelles.
abstract: Crystallization of membrane proteins remains a significant challenge. For proteins resistant to the traditional approach of directly crystallizing from detergents, lipidic phase crystallization can be a powerful tool. Bicelles are an excellent medium for crystallizing membrane proteins in a lipidic environment. They can be described as bilayer discs formed by the mixture of a long-chain phospholipid and an amphiphile in an aqueous medium. Membrane proteins can be readily reconstituted into bicelles, where they are maintained in a native-like bilayer environment. Importantly, membrane proteins have been shown to be fully functional in bicelles under physiological conditions. Protein-bicelle mixtures can be manipulated with almost the same ease as detergent-solubilized membrane proteins, making bicelles compatible with standard equipment including high-throughput crystallization robots. A number of membrane proteins have now been successfully crystallized using the bicelle method, including bacteriorhodopsin, β2 adrenergic receptor, voltage-dependent anion channel, xanthorhodopsin and rhomboid protease. Because of the success with a variety of membrane proteins and the ease of implementation, bicelles should be a part of every membrane protein crystallographer's arsenal.
authors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics, Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1570, United States.
authors: Rachna
authors: R
authors: Ujwal
authors: James U
authors: JU
authors: Bowie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D002793:Cholic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D004134:Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008823:Micelles; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002793:Cholic Acids; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D008823:Micelles; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; C048531:chapso; D004134:Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine