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Plasma membranes are asymmetric in lipid unsaturation, packing and protein shape

Nature Chemical Biology volume 16, pages 644–652 (2020)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 15 May 2020

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Abstract

A fundamental feature of cellular plasma membranes (PMs) is an 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 approximately twofold more unsaturated than the exoplasmic leaflet. 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 the asymmetric structures of protein transmembrane domains. These structural asymmetries are conserved throughout Eukaryota, suggesting fundamental cellular design principles.

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Fig. 1: Lipidomic asymmetry of erythrocyte plasma membranes.
Fig. 2: Atomistic simulation of the biophysical asymmetry of erythrocyte plasma membrane.
Fig. 3: Biophysical asymmetry of the plasma membrane.
Fig. 4: Asymmetry of membrane packing through the endocytic pathway.
Fig. 5: Structural asymmetry in plasma membrane protein transmembrane domains is related to subcellular localization.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its Supplementary Information files) or are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

All fluorescence microscopy was performed at the Center for Advanced Microscopy, Department of Integrative Biology & Pharmacology at McGovern Medical School, UTHealth. We thank N. Waxham for his generous sharing of the microinjection system. We acknowledge K. Simons, T. Steck, Y. Lange and G. Feigenson for their critical feedback on this manuscript. Funding for this work was provided by the NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM114282, GM124072, GM120351 and GM134949), the Volkswagen Foundation (grant no. 93091) and the Human Frontiers Science Program (RGP0059/2019). E.S. is funded by Newton-Katip Ҫelebi Institutional Links grant no. 352333122. Anton2 computer time was provided by the National Resource for Biomedical Supercomputing (NRBSC), the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) and the Biomedical Technology Research Center for Multiscale Modeling of Biological Systems through grant no. P41GM103712-S1 from the National Institutes of Health.

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Author notes

  1. E. Sezgin

    Present address: SciLifeLab, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. McGovern Medical School, Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    J. H. Lorent, K. R. Levental, L. Ganesan, M. Doktorova & I. Levental

  2. Biological Sciences Department, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    G. Rivera-Longsworth

  3. John Radcliffe Hospital, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    E. Sezgin

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    E. Lyman

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Contributions

J.H.L., I.L., E.L. and K.R.L. designed the study. J.H.L., K.R.L., L.G., G.R.-L., M.D. and E.S. performed experiments. E.L. performed and analyzed the molecular dynamics simulations. J.H.L. carried out the bioinformatics analysis. J.H.L., K.R.L. and I.L. analyzed the experimental results and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to I. Levental.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Figs. 1–15.

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Supplementary Dataset

Asymmetric lipidomes.

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Lorent, J.H., Levental, K.R., Ganesan, L. et al. Plasma membranes are asymmetric in lipid unsaturation, packing and protein shape. Nat Chem Biol 16, 644–652 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-0529-6

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