title: Detecting protein association at the T cell plasma membrane.
abstract: At the moment, many models on T cell signaling rely on results obtained via rather indirect methodologies, which makes direct comparison and conclusions to the in vivo situation difficult. Recently, a variety of new imaging methods were developed, which have the potential to directly shed light onto the mysteries of protein association at the T cell membrane. While the new modalities are extremely promising, for a broad readership it may be difficult to judge the results, since technological shortcomings are not always obvious. In this review article, we put key questions on the mechanism of protein interactions in the T cell plasma membrane into relation with techniques that allow to address such questions. We discuss applicability of the techniques, their strengths and weaknesses. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Nanoscale membrane organisation and signalling.
authors.affiliation: Vienna University of Technology, Institute for Applied Physics, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baumgart
authors.affiliation: Vienna University of Technology, Institute for Applied Physics, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: schuetz@iap.tuwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Gerhard J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Schütz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011485:Protein Binding; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins
keywords: Protein interaction; Single molecule microscopy; T cell plasma membrane