Chemical Approaches to the Identification and Characterization of Protein‐Membrane Binding Interactions Using Synthetic Lipid Probes

Abstract

Signaling lipids present in cellular membranes act as important regulators of biological processes and have been implicated in the onset of numerous diseases. A common role of these lipids is the recruitment of proteins to the cell membrane surface through binding events that generally regulate protein function and localization. While understanding these interactions at the molecular level is of great interest, such efforts are hindered by the complexity of the membrane environment in which binding occurs. Towards this end, chemical strategies will be presented by which protein–membrane recognition events can be efficiently characterized. Firstly, the development and application of lipid activity probes for the proteomic identification of lipid‐binding proteins will be described. In addition, microarray platforms for the characterization of protein‐membrane binding interactions will be presented. Finally, strategies for the labeling and detection of lipids in native environments will also be discussed.