Synthetic Membrane Shaper for Controlled Liposome Deformation

Journal article

Lipid membranes

Proteins

Multi-scale

Sterols

Author

Nicola De Franceschi, Weria Pezeshkian, Alessio Fragasso, Bart M. H. Bruininks, Sean Tsai, Siewert J. Marrink, and Cees Dekker

Doi

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c06125

Citation (APA 7)

De Franceschi, N., Pezeshkian, W., Fragasso, A., Bruininks, B. M., Tsai, S., Marrink, S. J., & Dekker, C. (2022). Synthetic membrane shaper for controlled liposome deformation. ACS nano, 17(2), 966-978.

Abstract

Shape defines the structure and function of cellular membranes. In cell division, the cell membrane deforms into a “dumbbell” shape, while organelles such as the autophagosome exhibit “stomatocyte” shapes. Bottom-up in vitro reconstitution of protein machineries that stabilize or resolve the membrane necks in such deformed liposome structures is of considerable interest to characterize their function. Here we develop a DNA-nanotechnology-based approach that we call the synthetic membrane shaper (SMS), where cholesterol-linked DNA structures attach to the liposome membrane to reproducibly generate high yields of stomatocytes and dumbbells. In silico simulations confirm the shape-stabilizing role of the SMS. We show that the SMS is fully compatible with protein reconstitution by assembling bacterial divisome proteins (DynaminA, FtsZ:ZipA) at the catenoidal neck of these membrane structures. The SMS approach provides a general tool for studying protein binding to complex membrane geometries that will greatly benefit synthetic cell research.