Biophysics: Clustering key to membrane remodelling
A sophisticated simulation study reveals a trick that many membrane-bound proteins could use to vastly amplify their own effect on the shape of the membranes they are interacting with.
Biological membranes are much more than passive physical barriers: changes in their shape are linked to important cellular tasks such as endocytosis and protein sorting. It’s known that specialized proteins can sense and create membrane curvature, but the energy needed to accomplish complex membrane remodelling — large changes in membrane shape or topology — is only available when several proteins act together. But how do they coordinate their action?
Kurt Kremer and colleagues now show that a single protein interacting with a membrane causes local changes in membrane shape. Importantly, this attracts other proteins in the vicinity, which then cluster together yielding enough energy for the membrane to be remodelled, allowing, for example, vesicles to be formed.
CONTACT
Kurt Kremer (Max-Planck-Institut fur Polymerforschung, Mainz, Germany)
Tel: +49 6131 379 140; E-mail: kremer@mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Michael M. Kozlov (Tel Aviv University, Israel) N&V author
Tel: +972 3 640 7863; E-mail: michk@post.tau.ac.il