Formation of SMALPs

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 31 July 2018 16:20

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Experimental characterization of membrane proteins often requires their solubilization. A recent approach is to use styrene maleic acid (SMA) copolymers to isolate membrane proteins in nanometer-sized membrane discs, so called SMA lipid particles (SMALPs). The approach has the advantage of allowing direct extraction of proteins, keeping their native lipid environment. Despite the growing popularity of using SMALPs, the molecular mechanism behind the process remains poorly understood.

In this paper, we unravel the molecular details of the nanodisc formation based on Martini simulations:

M. Xue, L. Cheng, I. Faustino, W. Guo, S.J. Marrink, Biophys. J., 2018, online.

Lipid fingerprints

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Last Updated: Thursday, 14 June 2018 10:29

fingerprintThe large variety of lipids in the plasma membrane gives rise to very complex protein-lipid interactions. These interactions, coined fingeprints, are analyzed in the following paper, based on the Martini model (what else?):

V. Corradi et al. Lipid–Protein Interactions Are Unique Fingerprints for Membrane Proteins. ACS Cent. Sci., asap, 2018. DOI:10.1021/acscentsci.8b00143

Curvature-induced lipid sorting

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 June 2018 06:56

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By pulling tethers from realistic plasma membranes we have been able to identify to what extent lipids are being sorted as a result of curvature. We show that some lipids are depleted from highly curved regions, whereas other are being enriched. But everything also depends on the pulling direction, as the plasma membrane is asymmetric. For details, see the paper which is now available online in the new flagship journal of Wiley:

S. Baoukina, H.I. Ingólfsson, S.J. Marrink, D.P. Tieleman. Curvature‐Induced Sorting of Lipids in Plasma Membrane Tethers. Advanced Theory and Simulations, https://doi.org/10.1002/adts.201800034.

 

Martini 3.0 before the Summer

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Last Updated: Friday, 29 June 2018 18:13

The long awaited (beta) release date of the new Martini 3.0 model is finally there: July 1st, 2018.

Less than 1 week to go, and all your Martini worries will be gone !

Review on supramolecular systems

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Last Updated: Monday, 07 May 2018 12:03

Interested in supramolecular self-assembly ? Check out this review from our group, featuring many Martini-based simulations:

P.W.J.M. Frederix, I. Patmanidis, S.J. Marrink. Molecular simulations of self-assembling bio-inspired supramolecular systems and their connection to experiments. Chem. Soc. Review, in press, 2018. doi:10.1039/C8CS00040A

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Martini 3 cocktail release

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Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 April 2018 18:24

With a major new release of the Martini force field (Martini 3.0) imminent, it is also appropriate to perform an update on the inspiration for the force field: the Martini cocktail. We know the Classic Martini, Vodka Martini, Dirty Martini, Perfect Martini, Dry Martini and other, but after an evening of hard work we now have the official Martini 3.0 cocktail too! See here for a detailed decription how to mix it. Enjoy !