Curvature-sensing and generation by membrane proteins: a review

TL;DR

This review summarizes recent theoretical advances in understanding how membrane proteins sense and generate curvature, highlighting models, simulations, and the roles of various protein structures in membrane remodeling.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of mean-field theories, simulation results, and the effects of protein structures on membrane curvature, integrating recent developments in the field.

Findings

Mean-field theories describe protein binding and membrane deformation.

Hydrophobic insertions influence membrane bending energy.

Anisotropic proteins like BAR domains contribute to curvature sensing.

Abstract

Membrane proteins are crucial in regulating biomembrane shapes and controlling the dynamic changes in membrane morphology during essential cellular processes. These proteins can localize to regions with their preferred curvatures (curvature sensing) and induce localized membrane curvature. Thus, this review describes the recent theoretical development in membrane remodeling performed by membrane proteins. The mean-field theories of protein binding and the resulting membrane deformations are reviewed. The effects of hydrophobic insertions on the area-difference elasticity energy and that of intrinsically disordered protein domains on the membrane bending energy are discussed. For the crescent-shaped proteins, such as Bin/Amphiphysin/Rvs superfamily proteins, anisotropic protein bending energy and orientation-dependent excluded volume significantly contribute to curvature sensing and generation. Moreover, simulation studies of membrane deformations caused by protein binding are reviewed, including domain formation, budding, and tubulation.