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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Apr 19.
Published in final edited form as: Biochemistry. 2011 Mar 25;50(15):3193–3203. doi: 10.1021/bi200037j

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Bicelle morphology and composition. Bicelles are disc-like membrane structures composed of long-chain phospholipids and capped by either detergents or short-chained phospholipids. The radius of the disc is dependent on the long-chain phospholipid to detergent or short-chain phospholipid molar ratio (q ratio). The width of the bilayer is dependent on the acyl-chain length of the long-chain phospholipid. In this study, all bicelles compositions were prepared in a 2.8:1 phospholipid:detergent molar ratio with 14:0 phospholipids comprising the bilayer. (a) Neutral bicelles were composed of DMPC bilayers capped with 6:0 DHPC, CHAPS, or CHAPSO. (b) Negatively charged bicelles were composed of 14:0 phospholipids mixed with DHPC (6:0) in a 2.8:1 ratio. The ratio of neutral to negatively charged phospholipids is indicated within the parentheses in the graph. Schematic representation of (c) DMPS and (d) DMPA phospholipids.