Raft composition at physiological temperature and pH in the absence of detergents

Perfringolysin O association with ordered lipid domains: implications for transmembrane protein raft affinity

Upon interaction with cholesterol, perfringolysin O (PFO) inserts into membranes and forms a rigid transmembrane (TM) β-barrel. PFO is believed to interact with liquid ordered lipid domains (lipid rafts). Because the origin of TM protein affinity for rafts is poorly understood, we investigated PFO raft affinity in vesicles having coexisting ordered and disordered lipid domains. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from PFO Trp to domain-localized acceptors indicated that PFO generally has a raft affinity between that of LW peptide (low raft affinity) and cholera toxin B (high raft affinity) in vesicles containing ordered domains rich in brain sphingomyelin or distearoylphosphatidylcholine. FRET also showed that ceramide, which increases exposure of cholesterol to water and thus displaces it from rafts, does not displace PFO from ordered domains. This can be explained by shielding of PFO-bound cholesterol from water. Finally, FRET showed that PFO affinity for ordered domains was higher in its non-TM (prepore) form than in its TM form, demonstrating that the TM portion of PFO interacts unfavorably with rafts. Microscopy studies in giant unilamellar vesicles confirmed that PFO exhibits intermediate raft affinity, and showed that TM PFO (but not non-TM PFO) concentrated at the edges of liquid ordered domains. These studies suggest that a combination of binding to raft-associating molecules and having a rigid TM structure that is unable to pack well in a highly ordered lipid environment can control TM protein domain localization. To accommodate these constraints, raft-associated TM proteins in cells may tend to locate within liquid disordered shells encapsulated within ordered domains.

Cholesterol lipids of Borrelia burgdorferi form lipid rafts and are required for the bactericidal activity of a complement-independent antibody

Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, is unusual as it contains free cholesterol and cholesterol glycolipids. It is also susceptible to complement-independent bactericidal antibodies, such as CB2, a monoclonal IgG1 against outer surface protein B (OspB). We find that the bactericidal action of CB2 requires the presence of cholesterol glycolipids and cholesterol. Ultrastructural, biochemical, and biophysical analysis revealed that the bacterial cholesterol glycolipids exist as lipid raft-like microdomains in the outer membrane of cultured and mouse-derived B. burgdorferi and in model membranes from B. burgdorferi lipids. The order and size of the microdomains are temperature sensitive and correlate with the bactericidal activity of CB2. This study demonstrates the existence of cholesterol-containing lipid raft-like microdomains in a prokaryote, and we suggest that the temperature dependence of B. burgdorferi lipid raft organization may have significant implications in the transmission cycle of the spirochetes which are exposed to a range of temperatures.

Partition profile of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in lipid domains upon reconstitution

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) is in intimate contact with the lipids in its native membrane. Here we analyze the possibility that it is the intrinsic properties of the AChR that determine its partition into a given lipid domain. Torpedo AChR or a synthetic peptide corresponding to the AChR M4 segment (the one in closer contact with lipids) was reconstituted into "raft"-containing model membranes. The distribution of the AChR was assessed by Triton X-100 extraction in combination with fluorescence studies, and lipid analyses were performed on each sample. The influence of rapsyn, a peripheral protein involved in AChR aggregation, was studied. Raft-like domain aggregation was also studied using membranes containing the ganglioside GM1 followed by GM1 crosslinking. The gammaM4 peptide displays a marked preference for raft-like domains. In contrast, AChR alone or in the presence of rapsyn or ganglioside aggregation exhibits no such preference for raft-like domains, but it does cause a significant reduction in the total amount of these domains. The results indicate that the distribution of the AChR in lipid domains cannot be due exclusively to the intrinsic physicochemical properties of the protein and that there must be an external signal in native cell membranes that directs the AChR to a specific membrane domain.

Atomistic simulation of lipid and DiI dynamics in membrane bilayers under tension

Membrane tension modulates cellular processes by initiating changes in the dynamics of its molecular constituents. To quantify the precise relationship between tension, structural properties of the membrane, and the dynamics of lipids and a lipophilic reporter dye, we performed atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of DiI-labeled dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) lipid bilayers under physiological lateral tensions ranging from -2.6 mN m(-1) to 15.9 mN m(-1). Simulations showed that the bilayer thickness decreased linearly with tension consistent with volume-incompressibility, and this thinning was facilitated by a significant increase in acyl chain interdigitation at the bilayer midplane and spreading of the acyl chains. Tension caused a significant drop in the bilayer's peak electrostatic potential, which correlated with the strong reordering of water and lipid dipoles. For the low tension regime, the DPPC lateral diffusion coefficient increased with increasing tension in accordance with free-area theory. For larger tensions, free area theory broke down due to tension-induced changes in molecular shape and friction. Simulated DiI rotational and lateral diffusion coefficients were lower than those of DPPC but increased with tension in a manner similar to DPPC. Direct correlation of membrane order and viscosity near the DiI chromophore, which was just under the DPPC headgroup, indicated that measured DiI fluorescence lifetime, which is reported to decrease with decreasing lipid order, is likely to be a good reporter of tension-induced decreases in lipid headgroup viscosity. Together, these results offer new molecular-level insights into membrane tension-related mechanotransduction and into the utility of DiI in characterizing tension-induced changes in lipid packing.

Lipids and membrane lateral organization

Shortly after the elucidation of the very basic structure and properties of cellular membranes, it became evident that cellular membranes are highly organized structures with multiple and multi-dimensional levels of order. Very early observations suggested that the lipid components of biological membranes might be active players in the creation of these levels of order. In the late 1980s, several different and diverse experimental pieces of evidence coalesced together giving rise to the lipid raft hypothesis. Lipid rafts became enormously (and, in the opinion of these authors, sometimes acritically) popular, surprisingly not just within the lipidologist community (who is supposed to be naturally sensitive to the fascination of lipid rafts). Today, a PubMed search using the key word "lipid rafts" returned a list of 3767 papers, including 690 reviews (as a term of comparison, searching over the same time span for a very hot lipid-related key word, "ceramide" returned 6187 hits with 799 reviews), and a tremendous number of different cellular functions have been described as "lipid raft-dependent." However, a clear consensus definition of lipid raft has been proposed only in recent times, and the basic properties, the ruling forces, and even the existence of lipid rafts in living cells has been recently matter of intense debate. The scenario that is gradually emerging from the controversies elicited by the lipid raft hypothesis emphasizes multiple roles for membrane lipids in determining membrane order, that encompass their tendency to phase separation but are clearly not limited to this. In this review, we would like to re-focus the attention of the readers on the importance of lipids in organizing the fine structure of cellular membranes.

Dynamic organization of lymphocyte plasma membrane: lessons from advanced imaging methods

Lipids and lipid domains are suggested to play an essential role in the heterogeneous organization of the plasma membrane in eukaryotic cells, including cells of the immune system. We summarize the results of advanced imaging and physical studies of membrane organization with special focus on the plasma membrane of lymphocytes. We provide a comprehensive up-to-date view on the existence of membrane lipid and protein clusters such as lipid rafts and suggest research directions to better understand these highly dynamic entities on the surface of immune cells.

GUV preparation and imaging: minimizing artifacts

The components of biological membranes are present in a physical mixture. The nonrandom ways that the molecules of lipids and proteins mix together can strongly influence the association of proteins with each other, and the chemical reactions that occur in the membrane, or that are mediated by the membrane. A particular type of nonrandom mixing is the separation of compositionally distinct phases. Any such phase separation would result in preferential partition of some proteins and lipids between the coexisting phases, and thus would influence which proteins could be in contact, and whether a protein could find its target. Phase separation in a plasma membrane would also influence the binding of molecules from outside the cell to the membrane, including recognition proteins on viruses, bacteria, and other cells. The concept of these and other events associated with membrane phase separation are sometimes grouped together as the "raft model" of biological membranes. Several types of experiments are aimed at detecting and characterizing membrane phase separation. Visualizing phase separation has special value, both because the immiscibility is so decisively determined, and also because the type of phase can often be identified. The fluorescence microscope has proven uniquely useful for yielding images of separated phases, both in certain cell preparations, and especially in models of cell membranes. Here we discuss ways to prepare useful model membranes for image studies, and how to avoid some of the artifacts that can plague these studies.

Dynamics of multicomponent vesicles in a viscous fluid

We develop and investigate numerically a thermodynamically consistent model of two-dimensional multicomponent vesicles in an incompressible viscous fluid. The model is derived using an energy variation approach that accounts for different lipid surface phases, the excess energy (line energy) associated with surface phase domain boundaries, bending energy, spontaneous curvature, local inextensibility and fluid flow via the Stokes equations. The equations are high-order (fourth order) nonlinear and nonlocal due to incompressibil-ity of the fluid and the local inextensibility of the vesicle membrane. To solve the equations numerically, we develop a nonstiff, pseudo-spectral boundary integral method that relies on an analysis of the equations at small scales. The algorithm is closely related to that developed very recently by Veerapaneni et al. [81] for homogeneous vesicles although we use a different and more efficient time stepping algorithm and a reformulation of the inextensibility equation. We present simulations of multicomponent vesicles in an initially quiescent fluid and investigate the effect of varying the average surface concentration of an initially unstable mixture of lipid phases. The phases then redistribute and alter the morphology of the vesicle and its dynamics. When an applied shear is introduced, an initially elliptical vesicle tank-treads and attains a steady shape and surface phase distribution. A sufficiently elongated vesicle tumbles and the presence of different surface phases with different bending stiffnesses and spontaneous curvatures yields a complex evolution of the vesicle morphology as the vesicle bends in regions where the bending stiffness and spontaneous curvature are small.

Sorting of lens aquaporins and connexins into raft and nonraft bilayers: role of protein homo-oligomerization

Two classes of channel-forming proteins in the eye lens, the water channel aquaporin-0 (AQP-0) and the connexins Cx46 and Cx50, are preferentially located in different regions of lens plasma membranes (1,2). Because these membranes contain high concentrations of cholesterol and sphingomyelin, as well as phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine with unsaturated hydrocarbon chains, microdomains (rafts) form in these membranes. Here we test the hypothesis that sorting into lipid microdomains can play a role in the disposition of AQP-0 and the connexins in the plane of the membrane. For both crude membrane fractions and proteoliposomes composed of lens proteins in phosphatidylcholine/sphingomyelin/cholesterol lipid bilayers, detergent extraction experiments showed that the connexins were located primarily in detergent soluble membrane (DSM) fractions, whereas AQP-0 was found in both detergent resistant membrane and DSM fractions. Analysis of purified AQP-0 reconstituted in raft-containing bilayers showed that the microdomain location of AQP-0 depended on protein/lipid ratio. AQP-0 was located almost exclusively in DSMs at a 1:1200 AQP-0/lipid ratio, whereas approximately 50% of the protein was sequestered into detergent resistant membranes at a 1:100 ratio, where freeze-fracture experiments show that AQP-0 oligomerizes (3). Consistent with these detergent extraction results, confocal microscopy images showed that AQP-0 was sequestered into raft microdomains in the 1:100 protein/lipid membranes. Taken together these results indicate that AQP-0 and connexins can be segregated in the membrane by protein-lipid interactions as modified by AQP-0 homo-oligomerization.

Lipid dependence of ABC transporter localization and function

Lipid rafts have been implicated in many cellular functions, including protein and lipid transport and signal transduction. ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters have also been localized in these membrane domains. In this review the evidence for this specific localization will be evaluated and discussed in terms of relevance to ABC transporter function. We will focus on three ABC transporters of the A, B and C subfamily, respectively. Two of these transporters are relevant to multidrug resistance in tumor cells (Pgp/ABCB1 and MRP1/ABCC1), while the third (ABCA1) is extensively studied in relation to the reverse cholesterol pathway and cellular cholesterol homeostasis. We will attempt to derive a generalized model of lipid rafts to which they associate based on the use of various different lipid raft isolation procedures. In the context of lipid rafts, modulation of ABC transporter localization and function by two relevant lipid classes, i.e. sphingolipids and cholesterol, will be discussed.

Phase-field modeling of the dynamics of multicomponent vesicles: Spinodal decomposition, coarsening, budding, and fission

We develop a thermodynamically consistent phase-field model to simulate the dynamics of multicomponent vesicles. The model accounts for bending stiffness, spontaneous curvature, excess (surface) energy, and a line tension between the coexisting surface phases. Our approach is similar to that recently used by Wang and Du [J. Math. Biol. 56, 347 (2008)] with a key difference. Here, we concentrate on the dynamic evolution and solve the surface mass conservation equation explicitly; this equation was not considered by Wang and Du. The resulting fourth-order strongly coupled system of nonlinear nonlocal equations are solved numerically using an adaptive finite element numerical method. Although the system is valid for three dimensions, we limit our studies here to two dimensions where the vesicle is a curve. Differences between the spontaneous curvatures and the bending rigidities of the surface phases are found numerically to lead to the formation of buds, asymmetric vesicle shapes and vesicle fission even in two dimensions. In addition, simulations of configurations far from equilibrium indicate that phase separation via spinodal decomposition and coarsening not only affect the vesicle shape but also that the vesicle shape affects the phase separation dynamics, especially the coarsening and may lead to lower energy states than might be achieved by evolving initially phase-separated configurations.

Preparation and properties of asymmetric vesicles that mimic cell membranes: effect upon lipid raft formation and transmembrane helix orientation

A methyl-beta-cyclodextrin-induced lipid exchange technique was devised to prepare small unilamellar vesicles with stable asymmetric lipid compositions. Asymmetric vesicles that mimic biological membranes were prepared with sphingomyelin (SM) or SM mixed with 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) as the predominant lipids in the outer leaflet and dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC), POPC, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidyl-L-serine (POPS), or POPS mixed with 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (POPE) in the inner leaflet. Fluorescence-based assays were developed to confirm lipid asymmetry. Cholesterol was introduced into these vesicles using a second methyl-beta-cyclodextrin exchange step. In asymmetric vesicles composed of SM outside, DOPC inside (SMo/DOPCi) or SM outside, 2:1 mol:mol POPE:POPS inside (SMo/2:1 POPE:POPSi) the outer leaflet SM formed an ordered state with a thermal stability similar to that in pure SM vesicles and significantly greater than that in symmetric vesicles with the same overall lipid composition. Analogous behavior was observed in vesicles containing cholesterol. This shows that an asymmetric lipid distribution like that in eukaryotic plasma membranes can be conducive to ordered domain (raft) formation. Furthermore asymmetric vesicles containing approximately 25 mol % cholesterol formed ordered domains more thermally stable than those in asymmetric vesicles lacking cholesterol, showing that the crucial ability of cholesterol to stabilize ordered domain formation is likely to contribute to ordered domain formation in cell membranes. Additional studies demonstrated that hydrophobic helix orientation is affected by lipid asymmetry with asymmetry favoring formation of the transmembrane configuration. The ability to form asymmetric vesicles represents an important improvement in model membrane studies and should find many applications in the future.

The challenge of lipid rafts

The Singer-Nicholson model of membranes postulated a uniform lipid bilayer randomly studded with floating proteins. However, it became clear almost immediately that membranes were not uniform and that clusters of lipids in a more ordered state existed within the generally disorder lipid milieu of the membrane. These clusters of ordered lipids are now referred to as lipid rafts. This review summarizes current thinking on the nature of lipid rafts focusing on the role of proteomics and lipidomics in understanding the structure of these domains. It also outlines the contribution of single-molecule methods in defining the forces that drive the formation and dynamics of these membrane domains.

Phenomenological model and phase behavior of saturated and unsaturated lipids and cholesterol

We present a phenomenological theory for the phase behavior of ternary mixtures of cholesterol and saturated and unsaturated lipids, one that describes both liquid and gel phases. It leads to the following description of the mechanism of the phase behavior: In a binary system of the lipids, phase separation occurs when the saturated chains are well ordered, as in the gel phase, simply due to packing effects. In the liquid phase, the saturated ones are not sufficiently well ordered for separation to occur. The addition of cholesterol, however, increases the saturated lipid order to the point that phase separation is once again favorable. Our theory addresses this last mechanism-the means by which cholesterol-mediated ordering of membrane lipids leads to liquid-liquid immiscibility. It produces, for the system above the main chain transition of the saturated lipid, phase diagrams in which there can be liquid-liquid phase separation in the ternary system but not in any of the binary ones, while below that temperature it yields the more common phase diagram in which a gel phase, rich in saturated lipid, appears in addition to the two liquid phases.

Functional imaging of microdomains in cell membranes

The presence of microdomains or rafts within cell membranes is a topic of intense study and debate. The role of these structures in cell physiology, however, is also not yet fully understood with many outstanding problems. This problem is partly based on the small size of raft structures that presents significant problems to their in vivo study, i.e., within live cell membranes. But the structure and dynamics as well as the factors that control the assembly and disassembly of rafts are also of major interest. In this review we outline some of the problems that the study of rafts in cell membranes present as well as describing some views of what are considered the generalised functions of membrane rafts. We point to the possibility that there may be several different 'types' of membrane raft in cell membranes and consider the factors that affect raft assembly and disassembly, particularly, as some researchers suggest that the lifetimes of rafts in cell membranes may be sub-second. We attempt to review some of the methods that offer the ability to interrogate rafts directly as well as describing factors that appear to affect their functionality. The former include both near-field and far-field optical approaches as well as scanning probe techniques. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are outlined. Finally, we describe our own views of raft functionality and properties, particularly, concerning the membrane dipole potential, and describe briefly some of the imaging strategies we have developed for their study.

Plasma membranes are poised for activation of raft phase coalescence at physiological temperature

Cell membranes are not randomly organized, but rather are populated by fluctuating nanoassemblies of increased translational order termed lipid rafts. This lateral heterogeneity can be biophysically extended because cooling formaldehyde-isolated plasma membrane preparations results in separation into phases similar to the liquid-ordered (Lo) and liquid-disordered (Ld) states seen in model membrane systems [Baumgart T, et al. (2007) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:3165-3170]. In this work we demonstrate that raft clustering, i.e., amplifying underlying raft-based connectivity to a larger scale, makes an analogous capacity accessible at 37 degrees C. In plasma membranes at this temperature, cholera toxin-mediated cross-linking of the raft ganglioside GM1 induced the sterol-dependent emergence of a slower diffusing micrometer-scale phase that was enriched in cholesterol and selectively reorganized the lateral distribution of membrane proteins. Although parallels can be drawn, we argue that this raft coalescence in a complex biological matrix cannot be explained by only those interactions that define Lo formation in model membranes. Under this light, our induction of raft-phase separation suggests that plasma membrane composition is poised for selective and functional raft clustering at physiologically relevant temperature.

Integration of ganglioside GT1b receptor into DPPE and DPPC phospholipid monolayers: an X-ray reflectivity and grazing-incidence diffraction study

Using synchrotron grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXD) and reflectivity, the in-plane and out-of-plane structures of mixed-ganglioside GT(1b)-phospholipid monolayers were investigated at the air-liquid interface and compared with monolayers of the pure components. The receptor GT(1b) is involved in the binding of lectins and toxins, including botulinum neurotoxin, to cell membranes. Monolayers composed of 20 mol % ganglioside GT(1b), the phospholipid dipalmitoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE), and the phospholipid dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) were studied in the gel phase at 23 degrees C and at surface pressures of 20 and 40 mN/m, and at pH 7.4 and 5. Under these conditions, the two components did not phase-separate, and no evidence of domain formation was observed. The x-ray scattering measurements revealed that GT(1b) was intercalated within the host DPPE/DPPC monolayers, and slightly expanded DPPE but condensed the DPPC matrix. The oligosaccharide headgroups extended normally from the monolayer surfaces into the subphase. This study demonstrated that these monolayers can serve as platforms for investigating toxin membrane binding and penetration.