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Strength in numbers: effect of protein crowding on the shape of cell membranes

Continuous reshaping of the plasma membrane into pleomorphic shapes is critical for a plethora of cellular functions. How the cell carries out this enigmatic control of membrane remodeling has remained an active research field for decades and several molecular and biophysical mechanisms have shown t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ruhoff, Victoria Thusgaard, Moreno-Pescador, Guillermo, Pezeshkian, Weria, Bendix, Poul Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Portland Press Ltd. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9704533/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36214373
http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20210883
Descripción
Sumario:Continuous reshaping of the plasma membrane into pleomorphic shapes is critical for a plethora of cellular functions. How the cell carries out this enigmatic control of membrane remodeling has remained an active research field for decades and several molecular and biophysical mechanisms have shown to be involved in overcoming the energy barrier associated with membrane bending. The reported mechanisms behind membrane bending have been largely concerned with structural protein features, however, in the last decade, reports on the ability of densely packed proteins to bend membranes by protein–protein crowding, have challenged prevailing mechanistic views. Crowding has now been shown to generate spontaneous vesicle formation and tubular morphologies on cell- and model membranes, demonstrating crowding as a relevant player involved in the bending of membranes. Still, current research is largely based on unnatural overexpression of proteins in non-native domains, and together with efforts in modeling, this has led to questioning the in vivo impact of crowding. In this review, we examine this previously overlooked mechanism by summarizing recent advances in the understanding of protein–protein crowding and its prevalence in cellular membrane-shaping processes.