生物膜曲度形成机制的探讨

Mechanisms for Generating Curvature in Biomembrane

细胞及其内部的细胞器均是由生物膜包被的。很多膜结构的特异形状是由膜的不同曲度引起的。诱导膜曲度的因子非常多,但往往都使用相似的原理。本文总结了生物膜曲度形成的几种主要机制,包括脂质成分组成的影响、细胞骨架的牵引、蛋白质的疏水性插入,以及蛋白形成脚手架维持曲度等。另外,有些蛋白质虽然本身不诱导曲度,却可以感应膜的曲度。这些曲度的形成机制在细胞生命活动中经常会交互综合产生作用,以确保细胞器塑形、囊泡发生及细胞自噬等重要过程的正常进行。

Cells and intraceUular organelles are membrane bound and adopt characteristic shapes. Membranes with various shapes can have different curvatures. Even though a lot of factors can contribute to curvature induction, they all appear to share common principles. In this review, we summarized the mechanisms for generating membrane curvatures, including the effect of lipid composition, pulling forces by cytoskeletons, hydrophobic insertion and scaffolding. In addition, some proteins do not generate curvature themselves, but play a role in sensing membrane curvature. These mechanisms are often used in combination to facilitate cellular processes such as organelle shaping, vesicle formation, and autophagy.