TY - JOUR

T1 - Strength in numbers

T2 - effect of protein crowding on the shape of cell membranes

AU - Ruhoff, Victoria Thusgaard

AU - Moreno-Pescador, Guillermo

AU - Pezeshkian, Weria

AU - Bendix, Poul Martin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s).

PY - 2022/10/31

Y1 - 2022/10/31

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - bending mechanism

KW - entropic pressure

KW - excluded volume

KW - membrane curvature

KW - membrane proteins

KW - protein crowding

U2 - 10.1042/BST20210883

DO - 10.1042/BST20210883

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36214373

AN - SCOPUS:85141003453

VL - 50

SP - 1257

EP - 1267

JO - Biochemical Society Transactions

JF - Biochemical Society Transactions

SN - 0300-5127

IS - 5

ER -