A fluid mosaic model is presented for the gross organization and structure of the proteins and lipids of biological membranes. The model is consistent with the restrictions imposed by thermodynamics. In this model, the proteins that are integral to the membrane are a heterogeneous set of globular molecules, each arranged in an amphipathic structure, that is, with the ionic and highly polar groups protruding from the membrane into the aqueous phase, and the nonpolar groups largely buried in the hydrophobic interior of the membrane. These globular molecules are partially embedded in a matrix of phospholipid. The bulk of the phospholipid is organized as a discontinuous, fluid bilayer, although a small fraction of the lipid may interact specifically with the membrane proteins. The fluid mosaic structure is therefore formally analogous to a two-dimensional oriented solution of integral proteins (or lipoproteins) in the viscous phospholipid bilayer solvent. Recent experiments with a wide variety of techniqes and several different membrane systems are described, all of which abet consistent with, and add much detail to, the fluid mosaic model. It therefore seems appropriate to suggest possible mechanisms for various membrane functions and membrane-mediated phenomena in the light of the model. As examples, experimentally testable mechanisms are suggested for cell surface changes in malignant transformation, and for cooperative effects exhibited in the interactions of membranes with some specific ligands. Note added in proof: Since this article was written, we have obtained electron microscopic evidence (69) that the concanavalin A binding sites on the membranes of SV40 virus-transformed mouse fibroblasts (3T3 cells) are more clustered than the sites on the membranes of normal cells, as predicted by the hypothesis represented in Fig. 7B. T-here has also appeared a study by Taylor et al. (70) showing the remarkable effects produced on lymphocytes by the addition of antibodies directed to their surface immunoglobulin molecules. The antibodies induce a redistribution and pinocytosis of these surface immunoglobulins, so that within about 30 minutes at 37 degrees C the surface immunoglobulins are completely swept out of the membrane. These effects do not occur, however, if the bivalent antibodies are replaced by their univalent Fab fragments or if the antibody experiments are carried out at 0 degrees C instead of 37 degrees C. These and related results strongly indicate that the bivalent antibodies produce an aggregation of the surface immunoglobulin molecules in the plane of the membrane, which can occur only if the immunoglobulin molecules are free to diffuse in the membrane. This aggregation then appears to trigger off the pinocytosis of the membrane components by some unknown mechanism. Such membrane transformations may be of crucial importance in the induction of an antibody response to an antigen, as well as iv other processes of cell differentiation.

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We have used the technique of experimental wounding of confluent monolayers ofnormal fibroblasts to induce essentially unidirectional and synchronous cell movement at the edge of the wound. The intracellular location of the Golgi apparatus and the microtubule-organizing center was determined by double indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, using antibodies specific for the membranes of the Golgi apparatus and antibodies specific for tubulin, respectively. In cells at the wound edge, the immunolabeled Golgi apparatus and microtubule-organizing center were in close proximity to one another and located predominantly forward of the cell nucleus facing the wound. In the same cultures in cells removed from the wound, the two organelles were also coordinately located; however, they were randomly oriented with respect to the wound edge. This reorientation of the two organelles in cells at the wound edge was evident within minutes after wounding and persisted as cell extension subsequently occurred into the wound. These results suggest that both the Golgi apparatus and the microtubule-organizing center may participate in directing cell movement. The possible mechanisms involved are discussed in the light of previous hypotheses and experimental evidence concerning cell motility.

An intracellular protein of 130,000 molecular weight was recently isolated in this laboratory from chicken gizzard smooth muscle. By immunofluorescence observations of cultured chicken fibroblasts, it was shown to be concentrated on the ventral surfaces of the cells where they formed focal adhesions to the substratum [Geiger, B. (1979) Celf 18, 19205. Focal adhesions are sites where, inside the fibroblast, microfilament bundles are known to terminate at the cell membrane.The suggestion was made that this new protein (herein named "vinculin") might be involved in the linkage of the termini of microfilament bundles to membranes in various cell types. To explore this possibility, in the present study we examined several chicken tissues, including intestinal epithelium, gizzard smooth muscle, and cardiac striated muscle, by immunoelectron microscopic labeling for vinculin on ultrathin frozen sections of the specimens. In each case, the immunolabeling for vinculin was concentrated close to membrane sites where microfilament bundles terminate: at the zonula adherens in the junctional complex of the brush border of epithelial cells; at the membrane-associated dense plaques of smooth muscle cells; and at the fascia adherens of the intercalated disk membranes of cardiac muscle cells. These results suggest therefore that vinculin may participate in the anchoring of microfilament bundles to specific membrane sites in various cells. Actin is a ubiquitous protein in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. In the form of F-actin, it is the major component of the 50-to 70-A-diameter filaments (microfilaments) inside many types of cells. Microfilaments together with myosin and associated structural and regulatory proteins provide the molecular machinery for much of the contractile activity of nonmuscle as well as muscle cells (1, 2). An important factor in this contractile activity is the attachment of the termini of bundles of microfilaments to specialized regions of the plasma membrane of a cell. This attachment provides one type of anchor against which the contractile machinery can exert tension. In different types of cells, microfilaments exist in quite different states of organization and, correspondingly, their regions of attachment to membranes appear quite different structurally in transmission electron microscopy. In cardiac striated muscle cells, for example, the microfilaments form part of a highly organized sarcomere structure and terminate at specialized sites of the intercalated disk membranes called fascia adherens (3). In the brush border of intestinal epithelium, bundles of microfilaments course through the terminal web, terminating at specialized membrane regions called the zonula adherens (4). Microfilament bundles in smooth muscle cells appear to be much less regularly organized than in either striated muscle or epithelial brush border but are known to terminate at the cell membrane at specialized sites called dense plaques (5). In cultured fibroblasts, microfilament bundles do not exhibit ordered arr...