[Back]

E. Sevcsik, G. Schütz:
"With or without rafts? Alternative views on cell membranes";
Bioessays, 38 (2016), 129 - 139.

The fundamental mechanisms of protein and lipid organization at the plasma
membrane have continued to engage researchers for decades. Among
proposed models, one idea has been particularly successful which assumes
that sterol-dependent nanoscopic phases of different lipid chain order
compartmentalize proteins, thereby modulating protein functionality. This
model of membrane rafts has sustainably sparked the fields of membrane
biophysics and biology, and shifted membrane lipids into the spotlight of
research; by now, rafts have become an integral part of our terminology to
describe a variety of cell biological processes. But is the evidence clear enough
to continue supporting a theoretical concept which has resisted direct proof by
observation for nearly twenty years? In this essay, we revisit findings that gave
rise to and substantiated the raft hypothesis, discuss its impact on recent
studies, and present alternative mechanisms to account for plasma membrane
heterogeneity.

lipids; membrane heterogeneity; membrane proteins; membrane rafts; phase separation; plasma membrane; raft hypothesis