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. 1985 Nov;48(5):775–780. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(85)83835-2

Structural comparison of native and deoxycholate-treated purple membrane.

R M Glaeser, J S Jubb, R Henderson
PMCID: PMC1329402  PMID: 4074837

Abstract

Lipid-depleted purple membrane prepared by extraction with deoxycholate has been compared with the native structure. X-ray and electron diffraction photographs show a reduction in cell dimension from 62.4 to 57.3 A, and a substantial change in the distribution of diffraction intensity compared with the native specimens. Low-dose electron microscopy has been used to obtain a projected density map of lipid-depleted membranes. The projected structure shows that the deoxycholate treatment removes a boundary layer of lipid, which in the native form separates adjacent trimers of bacteriorhodopsin. The map also provides an improved estimate of the molecular envelope of the protein. A plausible arrangement for the lipid molecules in both the native and the lipid-depleted membranes is proposed, but the precise positions of individual molecules cannot yet be specified.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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