Lipid rafts, detergent-resistant membranes, and raft targeting signals

Abstract

Lipid rafts are liquid-ordered (l(o)) phase microdomains proposed to exist in biological membranes. Rafts have been widely studied by isolating l(o)-phase detergent-resistant membranes (DRMs) from cells. Recent findings have shown that DRMs are not the same as preexisting rafts, prompting a major revision of the raft model. Nevertheless, raft-targeting signals identified by DRM analysis are often required for protein function, implicating rafts in a variety of cell processes.