Assembly of the M2 Tetramer Is Strongly Modulated by Lipid Chain Length

Sandra Schick, Lirong Chen, Edwin Li, Janice Lin, Ingo Köper, Kalina Hristova

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

The influenza virus matrix protein 2 (M2) assembles into a tetramer in the host membrane during viral uncoating and maturation. It has been used as a model system to understand the relative contributions of protein-lipid and protein-protein interactions to membrane protein structure and association. Here we investigate the effect of lipid chain length on the association of the M2 transmembrane domain into tetramers using Forster resonance energy transfer. We observe that the interactions between the M2 helices are much stronger in 1,2-dilauroyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine than in 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glyc- ero-3-phosphocholine bilayers. Thus, lipid chain length and bilayer thickness not only modulate peptide interactions, but could also be a major determinant of the association of transmembrane helices into functional membrane protein oligomers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1810-1817
Number of pages8
JournalBiophysical journal
Volume99
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics

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