Li Guohui - Membrane biophysics: new insights and methods

State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 5625, Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, Jilin, Peoples Republic of China

Hongda Wang

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The cell membrane encloses the cell, defines its boundaries, and maintains the essential differences between the cytosol and the extracellular environment. Inside eukaryotic cells, the membranes of the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and other membrane-enclosed organelles maintain the characteristic differences between the contents of each organelle and the cytosol. All these membranes form enclosed structure and a related net called cytoplasmic membrane system. Ion gradients across membranes, established by the activities of specialized membrane proteins, can be used to synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to drive the transport of selected solutes across the membrane, or as in nerve and muscle cells, to produce and transmit electrical signals. In all cells, the cell membrane also contains proteins those act as sensors of external signals, allowing the cell to change its behavior in response to environmental cues, including signals from other cells; these protein sensors, or receptors, transfer information rather than molecules across the membrane. Cell membranes are dynamic, fluid structures, and most of their molecules move about in the plane of the membrane.

Despite their different functions, all biological membranes have a general structure: a very thin film of lipid and protein molecules, linking together mainly by non-covalent interactions [].