New Techniques for Studying Biomembranes

Summary

This book describes methods being used to investigate the dynamic distribution of specific lipids in membranes and their effects on other membrane components. The contributors present important discoveries that have to do with lipid analysis and lipid interactions with proteins, receptors, transporters and ion channels, even though ion channels are more favored because of the interest of the selected contributors. Various methods, which have been used to study lipid bilayer structure and lipid organization in membranes, include both in vitro membrane systems and in vivo ones, and study membrane proteins in various membrane systems.

Key selling features:

• Reviews both in vivo and in vitro analytical technologies and methods for studying membrane structure and function
• Explores how lipid bilayers and membrane proteins interact
• Includes contributions from an international team of researchers actively studying membrane structure and function
• Identifies various diseases whose causes are membrane ion channel related

Table of Contents

Introduction. Lipid compositions of cell membranes and quantification. Phase behavior and lipid organization in membranes. Atomic Force Microscopy of biomembranes. Secondary Ion Mass spectrometry of membrane lipids. Super-resolution imaging of lipid membranes. Single molecule imaging of lipids and proteins in membranes. Membrane interferometry for studying lipids and proteins. Solid state NMR to study of membrane proteins in membranes. X-ray diffractions from stacked membranes. Neutron diffractions from membrane proteins in membranes. cryoEM of Membrane Proteins in membrane. Single molecular fluorimetry for membrane proteins. FRET measurement of ion channel in membrane. X-ray crystallography of membrane proteins.

Editor(s) Bio

Qiu-Xing Jiang is faculty in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science and and Electron Microscopy Faculty Director at the University of Florida's Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research. His laboratory is working in two areas. One is the structural and functional studies of membrane proteins and intracellular signaling complexes. The second general direction is the development of new techniques for both single particle cryoEM and for studying eukaryotic membrane proteins in lipid environments.