title: Bending membranes.
abstract: It is widely assumed that peripheral membrane proteins induce intracellular membrane curvature by the asymmetric insertion of a protein segment into the lipid bilayer, or by imposing shape by adhesion of a curved protein domain to the membrane surface. Two papers now provide convincing evidence challenging these views. The first shows that specific assembly of a clathrin protein scaffold, coupled to the membrane, seems to be the most prevalent mechanism for bending a lipid bilayer in a cell. The second reports that membrane crowding, driven by protein-protein interactions, can also drive membrane bending, even in the absence of any protein insertion into the bilayer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School and Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. kirchhausen@crystal.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kirchhausen
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D002966:Clathrin / Q000378:metabolism*; D022163:Clathrin-Coated Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism*; D018699:Coated Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002966:Clathrin; D008565:Membrane Proteins