The spectrin-based membrane skeleton as a membrane protein sorting
machine.
Beck, Kenneth A., and W. James Nelson.
Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford
University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5426
APStracts 2:0404C, 1995.
Normal cell function is dependent on the existence of membrane
compartments that have unique populations of membrane proteins.
Sorting of membrane proteins forms the basis for the biogenesis of
distinct membrane compartments. There are many examples of membrane
protein sorting events in cells, but the molecular machinery involved
is poorly understood. We discuss characteristics of a putative
membrane protein sorting machine and show that the spectrin-based
membrane skeleton conforms to these characteristics. The spectrin
-based membrane skeleton is a submembranous, spatially limited, two
-dimensional lattice that binds a subset of membrane proteins. These
properties allow the membrane skeleton to facilitate the formation of
distinct membrane domains and thus reveal its potential as a membrane
protein sorting machine.
Received 21 June 1995; accepted in final form 15 September 1995.
APS Manuscript Number C593-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 30 November 95