PROTEIN AGGREGATION IN MEMBRANES

Recently, progress has been made in understanding further the theory o f protein aggregation in membranes induced by membrane-mediated elasti c deformation. Aggregation may occur when: (i) there is a mis-match in size of the hydrophobic part of the protein with the membrane thickne ss which leads to a non-monotonic force between proteins associated wi th the membrane deformation; (ii) the proteins induce a local change i n membrane stiffness which couples to the thermal fluctuations of the membranes and engenders a van der Waals-like long range attraction whi ch decays as r(-4); (iii) the proteins act as gap junctions pinching t ogether two membranes which are otherwise repelling one another, which produces logarithmic long range attraction which may, in turn, induce aggregation.