Distinguishing Bicontinuous Lipid Cubic Phases from Isotropic Membrane Morphologies Using [superscript 31]P Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

available in PMC 2015 October 16

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yang, Yu (Contributor), Yao, Hongwei (Contributor), Hong, Mei (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Chemical Society (ACS), 2016-11-01T15:45:42Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
LEADER 03136 am a22002533u 4500
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042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Yang, Yu  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Yang, Yu  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Yao, Hongwei  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Hong, Mei  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Yao, Hongwei  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Hong, Mei  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Distinguishing Bicontinuous Lipid Cubic Phases from Isotropic Membrane Morphologies Using [superscript 31]P Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy 
246 3 3 |a Distinguishing Bicontinuous Lipid Cubic Phases from Isotropic Membrane Morphologies Using 31P Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy 
260 |b American Chemical Society (ACS),   |c 2016-11-01T15:45:42Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105160 
520 |a available in PMC 2015 October 16 
520 |a Nonlamellar lipid membranes are frequently induced by proteins that fuse, bend, and cut membranes. Understanding the mechanism of action of these proteins requires the elucidation of the membrane morphologies that they induce. While hexagonal phases and lamellar phases are readily identified by their characteristic solid-state NMR line shapes, bicontinuous lipid cubic phases are more difficult to discern, since the static NMR spectra of cubic-phase lipids consist of an isotropic [superscript 31]P or [superscript 2]H peak, indistinguishable from the spectra of isotropic membrane morphologies such as micelles and small vesicles. To date, small-angle X-ray scattering is the only method to identify bicontinuous lipid cubic phases. To explore unique NMR signatures of lipid cubic phases, we first describe the orientation distribution of lipid molecules in cubic phases and simulate the static [superscript 31]P chemical shift line shapes of oriented cubic-phase membranes in the limit of slow lateral diffusion. We then show that 31P T[subscript 2] relaxation times differ significantly between isotropic micelles and cubic-phase membranes: the latter exhibit 2 orders of magnitude shorter T[subscript 2] relaxation times. These differences are explained by the different time scales of lipid lateral diffusion on the cubic-phase surface versus the time scales of micelle tumbling. Using this relaxation NMR approach, we investigated a DOPE membrane containing the transmembrane domain (TMD) of a viral fusion protein. The static [superscript 31]P spectrum of DOPE shows an isotropic peak, whose T[subscript 2] relaxation times correspond to that of a cubic phase. Thus, the viral fusion protein TMD induces negative Gaussian curvature, which is an intrinsic characteristic of cubic phases, to the DOPE membrane. This curvature induction has important implications to the mechanism of virus-cell fusion. This study establishes a simple NMR diagnostic probe of lipid cubic phases, which is expected to be useful for studying many protein-induced membrane remodeling phenomena in biology. 
520 |a National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Grant GM066976) 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Journal of Physical Chemistry B