Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics
Open Access
ISSN: 0974-276X
ISSN: 0974-276X
Lubna Ghani, Muhammad Ehsan and Pil Seok Chae
Hanyang University, South Korea
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Proteomics Bioinform
Membrane proteins play crucial roles in regulating cellular functions at the interface between cells and their environments or on the surface of organelles. The major bottleneck for their structure study arises from their instability outside the native environments. Amphipathic agents called detergents, form micelles which mimic the lipid environment and are widely used for protein structural and functional studies. However, conventional detergents such as DDM and OG have limitations in maintaining the solubility and stability of membrane proteins in an aqueous solution. In this study, we introduced a novel class of amphiphiles consisting of vitamin E and saccharide units as the hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups, respectively. These agents showed remarkable efficacy toward stabilization and visualization of membrane protein complex, allowing us to clearly visualize a challenging membrane protein complex using electron microscopy.