Nanostructural determination of a lipid bilayer tethered to a gold substrate

. Tethered lipid bilayer membranes (tBLM) are planar membranes composed of free lipids and molecules tethered to a solid planar substrate providing a useful model of biological membranes for a wide range of biophysical studies and biotechnological applications. The properties of the tBLM depend on t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European physical journal. E, Soft matter and biological physics Soft matter and biological physics, 2016-12, Vol.39 (12), p.123-8, Article 123
Main Authors: Maccarini, Marco, Watkins, Erik B., Stidder, Barry, Alcaraz, Jean-Pierre, Cornell, Bruce A., Martin, Donald K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Biological and Medical Physics
Biomimetic Materials - chemistry
Biophysics
Biotechnology
Cell Membrane - chemistry
Complex Fluids and Microfluidics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter
Condensed matter physics
Deuteration
Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine - chemistry
Gold - chemistry
Life Sciences
Lipid Bilayers - chemistry
Lipids
Membranes
Molecular Conformation
Nanostructures - chemistry
Nanotechnology
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Polymer Sciences
Regular Article
Soft and Granular Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
Substrates
Surfaces and Interfaces
Tethering
Thin Films
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Summary:. Tethered lipid bilayer membranes (tBLM) are planar membranes composed of free lipids and molecules tethered to a solid planar substrate providing a useful model of biological membranes for a wide range of biophysical studies and biotechnological applications. The properties of the tBLM depend on the free lipids and on the chemistry of the tethering molecules. We present a nanoscale characterization of a tBLM composed of deuterated 1,2-dimyristoyl- sn -glycero-3-phosphocholine (d-DMPC) free lipids, benzyl disulfide undecaethylene glycol phytanol (DLP) tethering molecules, and benzyl disulfiide tetraethylene glycol polar spacer molecules (PSM) used to control the areal density of tethering molecules through coadsorption. The use of selected isotopic substitution provides a way to distinguish the conformation and location of the tethered lipids from the free lipids and to elucidate how the two components influence the structure of the tBLM. These findings provide useful information to optimise the insertion of transmembrane proteins into the tethered bilayer system. Graphical abstract
ISSN:1292-8941
1292-895X
DOI:10.1140/epje/i2016-16123-5