Large-scale fluid/fluid phase separation of proteins and lipids in giant plasma membrane vesicles

The membrane raft hypothesis postulates the existence of lipid bilayer membrane heterogeneities, or domains, supposed to be important for cellular function, including lateral sorting, signaling, and trafficking. Characterization of membrane lipid heterogeneities in live cells has been challenging in part because inhomogeneity has not usually been definable by optical microscopy. Model membrane systems, including giant unilamellar vesicles, allow optical fluorescence discrimination of coexisting lipid phase types, but thus far have focused on coexisting optically resolvable fluid phases in simple lipid mixtures. Here we demonstrate that giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) or blebs formed from the plasma…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: ECS-9876771, 9876771