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Nature 438, 569-570 (1 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/438569a; Published online 30 November 2005

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Cell biology: A greasy grip

Anthony G. Lee1

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How do the lipids and proteins of the cell membrane interact to create a functioning barrier for the cell? A high-resolution structure of a membrane protein reveals intimate contacts with its lipid neighbours.

The design of a biological membrane is beautifully simple: a lipid bilayer provides the basic barrier, and into this are plugged a variety of membrane proteins. Each protein is designed to carry out some particular function for the cell — moving specific molecules in or out of the cell, say, or sensing the environment.

  1. Anthony G. Lee is in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7PX, UK.
    Email: a.g.lee@soton.ac.co.uk

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