Figure 1.

Schematic model of the possible effects of gp41 MPER-TMD trimers on membrane structure and dynamics, to be investigated by the experiments shown in this work. The peptide might coordinate with negative-curvature lipids such as POPE (green) to induce negative Gaussian curvature. The peptide might change lipid mobility and membrane surface hydration to charged lipids such as POPS (blue) and zwitterionic lipids such as POPC (orange). At neutral pH, MPER-TMD contains +3 charges. Two MPER-TMD trimers are depicted schematically, but the data here do not probe whether multiple trimers are in close proximity.