COMBINING CURVATURE AND DOMAIN MEDIATED LOCALIZATION OF RAS PROTEIN ANCHORS

 

Bachelor Thesis Defence, Mike Palma Ellingsen

COMBINING CURVATURE AND DOMAIN MEDIATED LOCALIZATION OF RAS PROTEIN ANCHORS
A sneakpeak into binding curves and curvature sensing

Previous work within the field of lipid membranes has discovered moieties able to both sense and induce the curvature of bilayers. This bachelor thesis revolves around the N-RAS protein anchor, namely a synthesized RAS488 molecule that is identical to the hypervariable part of the N-RAS. Furthermore lipid bilayer vesicles were produced of either liquid ordered (Lo) or liquid disordered (Ld) phase to test if the RAS488 is a membrane curvature sensor (MCS). Other elements like the equilibrium disassociation constant  (Kd) and the saturation density (Bmax) of the binding between RAS488 and lipid vesicles were examined through treatment of data provided by the Single Liposome Curvature assay (SLiC) experiments generated from this thesis.
I can conclude that the RAS488 molecule is in fact a membrane curvature sensor and that it would seem to be the Kd as the determining factor of MCS on Lo vesicles. On Ld vesicles it seems that the Bmax determines the MCS of RAS488.