Cellular plasma membranes are laterally heterogeneous, featuring a variety of distinct subcompartments that differ in their biophysical properties and composition. A large body of research has focused on understanding the basis for this heterogeneity and its physiological relevance. The membrane raft hypothesis formalized a physicochemical principle for a subtype of such lateral membrane heterogeneity, wherein the preferential associations of cholesterol and saturated lipids drives the formation of relatively packed (ordered) membrane domains that selectively recruit certain lipids and proteins. Recent years have yielded new insights into this concept and its in vivo relevance, primarily owing to the development of biochemical and biophysical technologies.

Many cell types alter their morphology and gene expression profile when grown on chemically equivalent surfaces with different rigidities. One expectation of this change in morphology and composition is that the cell's internal stiffness, governed by cytoskeletal assembly and production of internal stresses, will change as a function of substrate stiffness. Atomic force microscopy was used to measure the stiffness of fibroblasts grown on fibronectin-coated polyacrylamide gels of shear moduli varying between 500 and 40,000 Pa. Indentation measurements show that the cells' elastic moduli were equal to, or slightly lower than, those of their substrates for a range of soft gels and reached a saturating value at a substrate rigidity of 20 kPa. The amount of cross-linked F-actin sedimenting at low centrifugal force also increased with substrate stiffness. Together with enhanced actin polymerization and cross-linking, active contraction of the cytoskeleton can also modulate stiffness by exploiting the nonlinear elasticity of semiflexible biopolymer networks. These results suggest that within a range of stiffness spanning that of soft tissues, fibroblasts tune their internal stiffness to match that of their substrate, and modulation of cellular stiffness by the rigidity of the environment may be a mechanism used to direct cell migration and wound repair.

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The observation of phase separation in intact plasma membranes isolated from live cells is a breakthrough for research into eukaryotic membrane lateral heterogeneity, specifically in the context of membrane rafts. These observations are made in giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs), which can be isolated by chemical vesiculants from a variety of cell types and microscopically observed using basic reagents and equipment available in any cell biology laboratory. Microscopic phase separation is detectable by fluorescent labeling, followed by cooling of the membranes below their miscibility phase transition temperature. This protocol describes the methods to prepare and isolate the vesicles, equipment to observe them under temperature-controlled conditions and three examples of fluorescence analysis: (i) fluorescence spectroscopy with an environment-sensitive dye (laurdan); (ii) two-photon microscopy of the same dye; and (iii) quantitative confocal microscopy to determine component partitioning between raft and nonraft phases. GPMV preparation and isolation, including fluorescent labeling and observation, can be accomplished within 4 h.

The physical basis for protein partitioning into lipid rafts remains an outstanding question in membrane biology that has previously been addressed only through indirect techniques involving differential solubilization by nonionic detergents. We have used giant plasma membrane vesicles, a plasma membrane model system that phase separates to include an ordered phase enriching for raft constituents, to measure the partitioning of the transmembrane linker for activation of Tcells (LAT). LATenrichment in the raft phase was dependent on palmitoylation at two juxtamembrane cysteines and could be enhanced by oligomerization. This palmitoylation requirement was also shown to regulate raft phase association for the majority of integral raft proteins. Because cysteine palmitoylation is the only lipid modification that has been shown to be reversibly regulated, our data suggest a role for palmitoylation as a dynamic raft targeting mechanism for transmembrane proteins.phase separation | raft partitioning | posttranslational modification | GPI-anchored protein P osttranslational modifications allow for rapid modulation of protein structure, localization, and function. An important class is lipid modifications, which includes the addition of GPI anchors, sterols, as well as single saturated and/or unsaturated fatty acids. The cellular purpose of protein lipidation is often to anchor the modified polypeptide to membranes; however, the functional significance of the widespread S acylation of transmembrane (TM) proteins remains unclear. Additionally, S acylation, often referred to as "palmitoylation" due to the addition of a cysteine-linked palmitate, is the only protein lipidation under dynamic enzymatic regulation, implying a potentially important regulatory role (1).Adapting a recently developed experimental system for measuring protein partitioning between coexisting fluid domains in cell-derived isolated plasma membranes, we find that palmitoylation regulates raft phase affinity of LAT (linker for activation of T cells), a critical adaptor in immune system signaling. This finding extends to the majority of raft phase partitioning proteins, suggesting a general role for protein palmitoylation in dynamic regulation of raft association. Although previous studies (2-7) have implicated palmitoylation in regulation of detergent resistance of TM proteins, the indirect and controversial nature of these experiments has limited their applicability in assigning raft affinity. The results presented here directly demonstrate and quantify the vital role of palmitoylation in partitioning of TM proteins to raft phase domains of isolated plasma membranes (PM). ResultsLAT Partitioning Is Disrupted by DTT. Giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) are cell-and cytoskeleton-detached, organellefree PM blebs that maintain the protein (8) and lipid (9) diversity of the native membrane and separate into two liquid phases (10) with different order (11) mirroring the behavior of pure lipid liposomes (12). Remarkably, phase separation sorts membrane com...

SUMMARY: A fundamental feature of cellular plasma membranes (PM) is asymmetric lipid distribution between the bilayer leaflets. However, neither the detailed, comprehensive compositions of individual PM leaflets, nor how these contribute to structural membrane asymmetries have been defined. We report the distinct lipidomes and biophysical properties of both monolayers in living mammalian PMs. Phospholipid unsaturation is dramatically asymmetric, with the cytoplasmic leaflet being ~2-fold more unsaturated than the exoplasmic. Atomistic simulations and spectroscopy of leaflet-selective fluorescent probes reveal that the outer PM leaflet is more packed and less diffusive than the inner leaflet, with this biophysical asymmetry maintained in the endocytic system. The structural asymmetry of the PM is reflected in asymmetric structures of protein transmembrane domains (TMD). These structural asymmetries are conserved throughout Eukaryota, suggesting fundamental cellular design principles.

Lipid rafts are nanoscopic assemblies of sphingolipids, cholesterol, and specific membrane proteins that contribute to lateral heterogeneity in eukaryotic membranes. Separation of artificial membranes into liquid-ordered (Lo) and liquid-disordered phases is regarded as a common model for this compartmentalization. However, tight lipid packing in Lo phases seems to conflict with efficient partitioning of raft-associated transmembrane (TM) proteins. To assess membrane order as a component of raft organization, we performed fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy with the membrane probes Laurdan and C-laurdan. First, we assessed lipid packing in model membranes of various compositions and found cholesterol and acyl chain dependence of membrane order. Then we probed cell membranes by using two novel systems that exhibit inducible phase separation: giant plasma membrane vesicles [Baumgart et al. (2007) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:3165-3170] and plasma membrane spheres. Notably, only the latter support selective inclusion of raft TM proteins with the ganglioside GM1 into one phase. We measured comparable small differences in order between the separated phases of both biomembranes. Lateral packing in the ordered phase of giant plasma membrane vesicles resembled the Lo domain of model membranes, whereas the GM1 phase in plasma membrane spheres exhibited considerably lower order, consistent with different partitioning of lipid and TM protein markers. Thus, lipid-mediated coalescence of the GM1 raft domain seems to be distinct from the formation of a Lo phase, suggesting additional interactions between proteins and lipids to be effective.generalized polarization value ͉ giant unilamellar vesicle ͉ membrane organization ͉ lipid sorting ͉ lipid raft T he lipid raft hypothesis postulates that selective interactions among sphingolipids, cholesterol, and membrane proteins contribute to lateral membrane heterogeneity (1). A tenet of the model is that small, dynamic cholesterol-sphingolipid-enriched assemblies can be induced to coalesce into larger, more stable structures through clustering of domain components (2). Although experimental data support cholesterol-dependent nano-scale membrane heterogeneity (3-8) and selective domain formation upon raft cross-linking (9-12), the mechanisms that govern such associations in cell membranes remain unclear.On the molecular level, a key feature that is thought to contribute to raft assembly is the propensity of cholesterol to pack tightly with saturated acyl chains of lipids causing them to adopt an extended conformation (13,14). In multi-component model membranes (n Ͼ 2), this interaction can lead to microscopically separate fluid membrane phases: the liquid-ordered (Lo) phase, enriched in saturated (sphingo-)lipids and cholesterol in a highly condensed state, and the liquid-disordered (Ld) phase, enriched in unsaturated glycerophospholipid in a disordered state (15)(16)(17).Several features of the Lo phase in model membranes correspond to the predicted properties of lipid rafts in cel...

Summary Background A number of adhesion-mediated signaling pathways and cell cycle events have been identified that regulate cell proliferation, yet studies to date have been unable to determine which of these pathways control mitogenesis in response to physiologically relevant changes in tissue elasticity. In this report, we have used hydrogel-based substrata matched to biological tissue stiffness to investigate the effects of matrix elasticity on the cell cycle. Results We find that physiological tissue stiffness acts as a cell cycle inhibitor in mammary epithelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells; subcellular analysis in these cells, mouse embryo fibroblasts, and osteoblasts shows that cell cycle control by matrix stiffness is widely conserved. Remarkably, most mitogenic events previously documented as ECM/integrin-dependent proceed normally when matrix stiffness is altered in the range that controls mitogenesis. These include ERK activity, immediately-early gene expression, and cdk inhibitor expression. In contrast, FAK-dependent Rac activation, Rac-dependent cyclin D1 gene induction, and cyclin D1-dependent Rb phosphorylation are strongly inhibited at physiological tissue stiffness and rescued when the matrix is stiffened in vitro. Importantly, the combined use of atomic force microscopy and fluorescence imaging in the mouse shows that comparable increases in tissue stiffness occur at sites of cell proliferation in vivo. Conclusion Matrix remodeling associated with pathogenesis is, in itself, a positive regulator of the cell cycle through a highly selective effect on integrin-dependent signaling to FAK, Rac, and cyclin D1.