Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

LIPIDS

Asymmetry across the membrane

A combination of biochemical and biophysical techniques to document the asymmetric distribution of lipids, with a particular focus on the acyl tails, in mammalian cell membranes show that protein transmembrane domains are similarly asymmetric.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Membranes feature asymmetric lipid distributions and biophysical properties, matched by asymmetric protein transmembrane domains.

References

  1. Van Meer, G., Voelker, D. R. & Feigenson, G. W. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 112–124 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Lorent, J. et al. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-0529-6 (2020).

  3. Jacobson, K., Mouritsen, O. G. & Anderson, R. G. Nat. Cell Biol. 9, 7–14 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Singer., S. J. & Nicolson, G. L. Science 175, 720–731 (1972).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Yesylevskyy, S. O. & Demchenko, A. P. Methods Mol. Biol. 1232, 291–306 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Simons, K. & Ikonen, E. Nature 387, 569–572 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Makarova, M. et al. Curr. Biol. 30, 367–380.e8 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kaiser, H.-J. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 286, 40631–40637 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dylan M. Owen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Makarova, M., Owen, D.M. Asymmetry across the membrane. Nat Chem Biol 16, 605–606 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-0545-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-0545-6

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing