Abstract
THE nature of intramembranous particles has recently been discussed in relation to the mode of freeze fracturing1,2. It has been argued that particles that do not show complementarity (complementary pits on the opposite fracture face) are a reflection of protein penetrating the membrane. The protein giving rise to an intramembraneous particle is plastically deformed during the fracturing procedure and is probably pulled out to one of the two fracture faces. Moreover we have argued that particles showing complementarity (pits) are possibly of lipidic origin. This latter hypothesis was mainly based on the determination of the nature of the intramembranous particles of the outer membrane of Escherichia coli. These complementary particles were shown to be determined by lipo-polysaccharide3,4. We show here that lipid can by itself form intramembranous particles showing complementarity and that these particles may be inverted micelles of phospholipid sandwiched between lipid monolayers.
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VERKLEIJ, A., MOMBERS, C., LEUNISSEN-BIJVELT, J. et al. Lipidic intramembranous particles. Nature 279, 162–163 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/279162a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/279162a0
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