Membrane protein assembly into Nanodiscs

Abstract

Nanodiscs are soluble nanoscale phospholipid bilayers which can self-assemble integral membrane proteins for biophysical, enzymatic or structural investigations. This means for rendering membrane proteins soluble at the single molecule level offers advantages over liposomes or detergent micelles in terms of size, stability, ability to add genetically modifiable features to the Nanodisc structure and ready access to both sides of the phospholipid bilayer domain. Thus the Nanodisc system provides a novel platform for understanding membrane protein function. We provide an overview of the Nanodisc approach and document through several examples many of the applications to the study of the structure and function of integral membrane proteins.

Figure 1

Illustrations of Nanodisc structures. Top panel: Nanodiscs composed of MSP1D1 and phospholipid shown in side view and top view. The two MSPs are colored orange and blue. Bottom panel: Nanodisc composed of MSP1E3D1, phospholipid and bR trimer (twenty-one transmembrane helices). The MSP1D1 and MSP1E3D1 structures are drawn to the same scale for comparison.