The dipole potential generating an electric field much stronger than any other type of membrane potential influences a wide array of phenomena, ranging from passive permeation to voltage-dependent conformational changes of membrane proteins. It is generated by the ordered orientation of lipid carbonyl and membrane-attached water dipole moments. Theoretical considerations and indirect experimental evidence obtained in model membranes suggest that the dipole potential is larger in liquid-ordered domains believed to correspond to lipid rafts in cell membranes. Using three different dipole potential-sensitive fluorophores and four different labeling approaches of raft and nonraft domains, we showed that the dipole potential is indeed stronger in lipid rafts than in the rest of the membrane. The magnitude of this difference is similar to that observed between the dipole potential in control and sphingolipid-enriched cells characteristic of Gaucher's disease. The results established that the heterogeneity of the dipole potential in living cell membranes is correlated with lipid rafts and imply that alterations in the lipid composition of the cell membrane in human diseases can lead to substantial changes in the dipole potential.

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Gaucher disease is a lysosomal storage disease characterized by the malfunction of glucocerebrosidase resulting in the accumulation of glucosylceramide and other sphingolipids in certain cells. Although the disease symptoms are usually attributed to the storage of undigested substrate in lysosomes, here we show that glycosphingolipids accumulating in the plasma membrane cause profound changes in the properties of the membrane. The fluidity of the sphingolipid-enriched membrane decreased accompanied by the enlargement of raft-like ordered membrane domains. The mobility of non-raft proteins and lipids was severely restricted, while raft-resident components were only mildly affected. The rate of endocytosis of transferrin receptor, a non-raft protein, was significantly retarded in Gaucher cells, while the endocytosis of the raft-associated GM1 ganglioside was unaffected. Interferon-γ-induced STAT1 phosphorylation was also significantly inhibited in Gaucher cells. Atomic force microscopy revealed that sphingolipid accumulation was associated with a more compliant membrane capable of producing an increased number of nanotubes. The results imply that glycosphingolipid accumulation in the plasma membrane has significant effects on membrane properties, which may be important in the pathogenesis of Gaucher disease.

Although activation of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases (ErbB1-4) is driven by oligomerization mediated by intermolecular interactions between the extracellular, the kinase and the transmembrane domains, the transmembrane domain has been largely neglected in this regard. The largest contributor to the intramembrane electric field, the dipole potential, alters the conformation of transmembrane peptides, but its effect on ErbB proteins is unknown. Here, we show by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and number and brightness (N&B) experiments that the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced increase in the homoassociation of ErbB1 and ErbB2 and their heteroassociation are augmented by increasing the dipole potential. These effects were even more pronounced for ErbB2 harboring an activating Val → Glu mutation in the transmembrane domain (NeuT). The signaling capacity of ErbB1 and ErbB2 was also correlated with the dipole potential. Since the dipole potential decreased the affinity of EGF to ErbB1, the augmented growth factor-induced effects at an elevated dipole potential were actually induced at lower receptor occupancy. We conclude that the dipole potential plays a permissive role in the clustering of ErbB receptors and that the effects of lipid rafts on ligand binding and receptor signaling can be partially attributed to the dipole potential.

Ratiometric determination of the efficiency of fluorescence or F€ orster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is one of the most widespread methods for the characterization of protein clustering and conformation. Low photon numbers, often present in pixel-by-pixel determination of FRET efficiency in digital microscopy, result in large uncertainties in the derived FRET parameter. Here, we propose a method based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of FRET efficiency using photon counting detectors to overcome this limitation. Intensities measured in the donor, FRET, and acceptor channels were all assumed to follow Poisson statistics as a result of detector shot noise. The joint probability of photon numbers detected in the donor, FRET, and acceptor channels was derived using an equation describing the relationship between the three measured intensities. The FRET efficiency generating the measured photon numbers with the largest likelihood was determined iteratively providing a single FRET value for all pixels in the calculation. Since as few as 100 pixels are sufficient to provide a maximum likelihood estimate for FRET, biological variability in FRET values can be revealed by performing the analysis for regions of interests in an image. Since the algorithm provides the probability of a combination of donor, FRET, and acceptor intensities observed in each individual pixel given a certain FRET efficiency, outlier pixels with low probabilities could be excluded from the analysis. Simulations carried out with low photon numbers in the presence and absence of outlier pixels revealed that the proposed approach can reliably and reproducibly estimate FRET efficiency. In addition, systematic evaluation of the simulation results showed that the distribution of pixel-by-pixel FRET efficiencies is skewed, and the mean of these FRET values is a biased and unreliable estimate of the FRET efficiency. In the absence of outlier pixels, FRET calculated from summed donor, FRET, and acceptor intensities proved to be as reliable as MLE. We conclude that MLE of FRET outperforms calculations using summed and pixel-bypixel intensities in biologically relevant situations involving low photon numbers and outlier pixels.

Fluorescence or F€ orster resonance energy transfer (FRET) remains one of the most widely used methods for assessing protein clustering and conformation. Although it is a method with solid physical foundations, many applications of FRET fall short of providing quantitative results due to inappropriate calibration and controls. This shortcoming is especially valid for microscopy where currently available tools have limited or no capability at all to display parameter distributions or to perform gating. Since users of multiparameter flow cytometry usually apply these tools, the absence of these features in applications developed for microscopic FRET analysis is a significant limitation. Therefore, we developed a graphical user interface-controlled Matlab application for the evaluation of ratiometric, intensity-based microscopic FRET measurements. The program can calculate all the necessary overspill and spectroscopic correction factors and the FRET efficiency and it displays the results on histograms and dot plots. Gating on plots and mask images can be used to limit the calculation to certain parts of the image. It is an important feature of the program that the calculated parameters can be determined by regression methods, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and from summed intensities in addition to pixel-by-pixel evaluation. The confidence interval of calculated parameters can be estimated using parameter simulations if the approximate average number of detected photons is known. The program is not only user-friendly, but it provides rich output, it gives the user freedom to choose from different calculation modes and it gives insight into the reliability and distribution of the calculated parameters. V C 2016 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry

Blooms of toxic cyanobacteria are well-known phenomena in many regions of the world. Microcystin (MC), the most frequent cyanobacterial toxin, is produced by entirely different cyanobacteria, including unicellular, multicellular filamentous, heterocytic, and non-heterocytic bloom-forming species. Planktothrix is one of the most important MC-producing genera in temperate lakes. The reddish color of cyanobacterial blooms viewed in a gravel pit pond with the appearance of a dense 3 cm thick layer (biovolume: 28.4 mm3 L−1) was an unexpected observation in the shallow lake-dominated alluvial region of the Carpathian Basin. [d-Asp3, Mdha7]MC–RR was identified from the blooms sample by MALDI-TOF and NMR. Concentrations of [d-Asp3, Mdha7]MC–RR were measured by capillary electrophoresis to compare the microcystin content of the field samples and the isolated, laboratory-maintained P. rubescens strain. In analyzing the MC gene cluster of the isolated P. rubescens strain, a deletion in the spacer region between mcyE and mcyG and an insertion were located in the spacer region between mcyT and mcyD. The insertion elements were sequenced and partly identified. Although some invasive tropical cyanobacterial species have been given a great deal of attention in many recent studies, our results draw attention to the spread of the alpine organism P. rubescens as a MC-producing, bloom-forming species.

Although the largely positive intramembrane dipole potential (DP) may substantially influence the function of transmembrane proteins, its investigation is deeply hampered by the lack of measurement techniques suitable for high-throughput examination of living cells. Here, we describe a novel emission ratiometric flow cytometry method based on F66, a 3-hydroxiflavon derivative, and demonstrate that 6-ketocholestanol, cholesterol and 7-dehydrocholesterol, saturated stearic acid (SA) and ω-6 γ-linolenic acid (GLA) increase, while ω-3 α-linolenic acid (ALA) decreases the DP. These changes do not correlate with alterations in cell viability or membrane fluidity. Pretreatment with ALA counteracts, while SA or GLA enhances cholesterol-induced DP elevations. Furthermore, ALA (but not SA or GLA) increases endo-lysosomal escape of penetratin, a cell-penetrating peptide. In summary, we have developed a novel method to measure DP in large quantities of individual living cells and propose ALA as a physiological DP lowering agent facilitating cytoplasmic entry of penetratin.