Issue 1, 2011

Photochemical control of membrane raft organization

Abstract

Controllable membrane phase separation through the action of a synthetic photoresponsive amphiphile is reported. We studied multi-component giant vesicles formed from a ternary lipid mixture of saturated and unsaturated phospholipid and cholesterol together with the photoresponsive amphiphile. A change in the conformation of the photoresponsive amphiphile can switch membrane lateral segregation in a reversible manner. Cis-isomerization induces lateral phase separation in one-phase membranes or produces additional lateral domains in two-phase membranes. Membranes that are close to miscibility boundary show high photo-responsiveness. This is the first report on the reversible control of membrane lateral segregation triggered by a conformational change in a membrane-constituting molecule. These findings may lead to new methods for controlling membrane self-organization such as raft engineering.

Graphical abstract: Photochemical control of membrane raft organization

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Aug 2010
Accepted
14 Sep 2010
First published
09 Oct 2010

Soft Matter, 2011,7, 220-224

Photochemical control of membrane raft organization

T. Hamada, R. Sugimoto, T. Nagasaki and M. Takagi, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 220 DOI: 10.1039/C0SM00797H

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