title: Membrane preparation and solubilization.
abstract: Membrane proteins play an essential role in several biological processes like ion transport, signal transduction, and electron transfer to name a few. For structural and functional studies of integral membrane proteins, it is critically important to isolate proteins from the membrane using biological detergents. Detergents disrupt the native lipid components of the native membrane and encase the membrane protein in an unnatural environment in aqueous solution. However, a particular membrane protein is best solubilized in a specific detergent; therefore, screening for the optimal detergent is essential. Apart from keeping the membrane protein monodispered in solution, the detergent has to be compatible with downstream processes to isolate and characterize a membrane protein. Over the past several years, a number of membrane proteins have been successfully isolated for structural and functional studies that allowed an outline of general strategies for isolating a novel membrane protein of interest.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Electronic address: amr161@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Ankita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry*; D003902:Detergents / Q000737:chemistry*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012995:Solubility; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D014461:Ultracentrifugation; D015003:Yeasts / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003902:Detergents; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D008563:Membrane Lipids; D008565:Membrane Proteins
keywords: Cell lysis; Detergent solubilization; Lipids; Membrane protein; Protein stability