You are here: Home :: Area NEM :: Life sciences :: Biochemistry

W. E. Watkins, III III, A.K. Menon

Reconstitution of Phospholipid Flippase Activity from E. coli Inner Membrane: A Test of the Protein Translocon as a Candidate Flippase

Phospholipid flipping in biogenic membranes is a key feature of membrane bilayer assembly. Flipping is facilitated by proteinaceous transporters (flippases) that do not need metabolic energy to function. No flippase has yet been identified. The architecture of the E. coli protein translocon suggests that it could account for the flippase activity in the bacterial inner membrane. To test this possibility, we used E. coli cells depleted of SecYE or YidC to assay flipping in proteoliposomes reconstituted from detergent extracts of their inner membranes. We conclude that the protein translocon contributes minimally, if at all, to phospholipid flippase activity in the inner membrane.

Biological Chemistry, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 1431-6730
Volume: 383, 09/2002
Pages: 1435 - 1440

Show full article (external site)

Show all available items of this journal

 

Area NEM